Trump Told Republican Senators He’s Open to Higher Taxes on Richest Americans: Report
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President Donald Trump reportedly told several Senate Republicans this past week he was open to raising taxes on the highest earners in the U.S.
Semafor’s Burgess Everett reported on the meeting and wrote, “Trump’s comments came during a sitdown about his agenda with Senate Budget Committee Republicans and Majority Leader John Thune. After Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Trump how he’d view a proposal to let taxes increase on the highest earners, the president replied that he’d be fine with that idea, the three people told Semafor.”
Everett added that Trump’s comments were not considered “full-throated support” for tax raises by his sources, but noted they saw it as evidence of the president’s “willingness to entertain higher rates for upper-income taxpayers aligns with recent positive signals about the approach from some White House allies.”
Everett’s report adds weight behind a scoop from Axios’s Marc Caputo and Neil Irwin in late March. They reported at the time Trump’s White House was eyeing a “surprising option to help fulfill his campaign-trail promises: Allowing the richest Americans’ tax rates to rise in return for cutting taxes on tips, a senior White House official tells Axios.”
“Some White House officials believe letting income taxes on the very highest earners rise would buy breathing room on other priorities, and help blunt Democrats’ attacks as they seek to extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts,” the report added before noting, “Officials say all discussions are preliminary and nothing is set in stone.”
Trump has long promised to renew his 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Axios broke down the numbers on what it would mean for high earners if Trump’s cuts were not extended:
By the numbers: Currently the top income tax rate is 37%, charged on income above $609,351 for an individual or $731,201 for a married couple.
If the 2017 law were allowed to expire, that would jump to the pre-2018 rate of 39.6%, and lower the threshold above which the top rate applies.
Around 1% of taxpayers are in that top bracket, though they pay a disproportionate share of income taxes.
Under the budget reconciliation rules that Republicans seek to use to extend the tax cuts, that would free up more revenue that could be used to fulfill some of Trump’s populist promises, such as eliminating taxes on tips.
The report added that the potential pivot on taxes comes amid internal concern about the optics of cutting services for Americans while also lowering taxes on the richest earners in the country.
“If we renew tax cuts for the rich paid for by throwing people off Medicaid, we’re gonna get f–king slaughtered,” a White House official told Axios.
