During his election campaign, former President Donald Trump has tried to claim that rival Kamala Harris has used his policies to attract voters, calling the vice president a “copycat.”
In August, Trump accused Harris directly of stealing ideas from him after announcing that she would eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers. Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The difference is, she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes! This was a TRUMP idea—She has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”
This week, Trump supporters online claimed to have spotted another policy action of the former president, saying Harris had “stolen” an idea to end degree requirements for federal jobs.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University on September 25 in Pittsburgh. Supporters of Donald Trump claim that Harris had “stolen” policy ideas about federal employment from the former president.
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user @TrumpWarRoom, included a video of Kamla Harris in which she said: “And so as President, part of how I am going to push this forward, is I will get rid of unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs, understanding that having a college degree is not the only measure of the skills and experience of a worker.”
The post on X stated: “President Trump already signed an executive order that did this in 2020.”
Another post by user JackMedia7 said: “On June 26th, 2020, Trump signed an Executive Order revoking college degree requirements for federal jobs
“Now Kamala Harris has STOLEN that policy and is pretending Trump didn’t already implement it.
“The lying is UNBELIEVABLE!”
The Facts
It’s not accurate to say that Harris has “stolen” the policy from Trump, nor is it wrong to claim that it builds on Trump’s actions as president.
In June 2020, Trump signed an executive order instructing the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to revise qualifications for government jobs, stating that an agency “may prescribe a minimum educational requirement for employment in the Federal competitive service only when a minimum educational qualification is legally required to perform the duties of the position in the State or locality where those duties are to be performed.”
The order added that while an agency could consider education as part of a candidate’s suitability for a role, it should only be so where the education “reflects the competencies necessary to satisfy that qualification and perform the duties of the position.”
“My Administration is committed to modernizing and reforming civil service hiring through improved identification of skills requirements and effective assessments of the skills job seekers possess,” read a statement signed by Trump.
“We encourage these same practices in the private sector. Modernizing our country’s processes for identifying and hiring talent will provide America a more inclusive and demand-driven labor force.”
Since then, further plans have been made to alter which federal careers require college degrees. In April 2024, the Biden administration announced plans to change requirements mandating employees of one primary government IT workforce to have a college degree, as reported by the Federal News Network and NextGov.
Harris’ campaign policy documents add to this, pledging to “open up opportunity by eliminating four-year degree requirements that are not needed for half a million federal jobs.”
The posts about this policy appear to suggest that this is a new policy that Harris has attempted to pass off on her own, which her comments and campaign material do not appear to reflect.
The Ruling
Needs Context.
Harris’ plans to expand federal jobs that do not require a college degree are a continuation of policies that began during Trump’s administration.
While Trump began efforts to remove college degree demands from government roles, the Biden administration developed this, as Harris plans to do as well if elected. It is not a policy that Harris has “stolen” or tried to take credit for entirely as her own, as social media posts appear to suggest.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
