Memo Reveals Trump’s Plan to Slash the Size of the G.O.P. Platform

Donald J. Trump’s top advisers are planning to drastically scale back and simplify the official platform of the Republican Party, according to a memo sent to the party’s platform committee that was reviewed by The New York Times.

The memo — signed by Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, the former president’s two lead advisers — described their efforts to pare down the platform “to ensure our policy commitments to the American people are clear, concise and easily digestible.” It dismissed past platforms as needlessly “textbook-long” documents shaped by “special interest influence” that had left the party and its nominee open to attacks from Democrats.

“Publishing an unnecessarily verbose treatise will provide more fuel for our opponent’s fire of misinformation and misrepresentation to voters,” the memo read. “It is with that recognition that we will present a streamlined platform in line with President Trump’s principled and popular vision for America’s future.”

The memo was sent on Thursday ahead of the G.O.P.’s gathering in Milwaukee next month, where it will first vote on its platform and then hold its national convention to select a presidential nominee.

The decision to cut the size of the platform sharply — the most recent one adopted by the party, in 2016, ran nearly 60 pages — is likely to prompt skirmishes among some conservatives and party activists who have spent years haggling over the document’s language. One person close to the process who was granted anonymity to speak about the planning said the new platform could be half the size of the one in 2016.

Anti-abortion activists, in particular, have been gearing up for a fight in case the Trump team seeks to dilute or delete longstanding language in order to make Mr. Trump appear more moderate on the issue.