President Donald Trump said on Friday that a tax increase on the highest income earners in the country would be “OK” with him, but warned that the move could be politically damaging to Republicans.
Trump made the comment after Punchbowl News reported on Thursday that the president was pushing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to include tax increases on the rich in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” According to The Hill, which cited three sources, the White House would allow Trump’s marginal income tax cut to expire for the wealthiest Americans while keeping tax breaks for lower income brackets.
“The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, “Read my lips,” the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” he added.
Trump’s reference to former President George H.W. Bush goes back to when Bush compromised with Congressional Democrats to increase several existing taxes after famously promising on the campaign trail, “Read my lips: no new taxes.” In the 1992 election cycle, Bill Clinton slammed Bush over the quote, saying he broke an election promise. Clinton went on to defeat Bush in the 1992 election, as independent candidate Ross Perot garnered 18.9% of the vote.
Trump’s pitch to raise taxes on the wealthy would reportedly only apply to those making more than $2.5 million a year for single filers or $5 million for joint filers. That would be substantially higher than the top tax bracket for 2024, which applied to incomes above $609,351 for single filers and $731,201 for joint filers. The tax increase on the wealthiest Americans would revert from the current 37% rate to the 39.6% rate that was in effect before Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, according to Punchbowl News.
Conservatives and Congressional Republicans, including some of Trump’s closest allies, have blasted the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy.
“That would be a tax on every small business, every job creator. And you know what? That’s what Kamala Harris campaigned on,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said during a Thursday appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “And I gotta say, the folks in the administration, they’ve decided to call themselves populists, but just being a Democrat and wanting higher taxes and more regulation, that’s not populist. That’s embracing the failed ideas of Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden.”
Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, stated on Wednesday, “President Trump ran on making all the tax rates reductions permanent. Kamala Harris ran on letting the top income tax rates reductions passed by Trump to spring back to the higher pre-Trump/Obama tax rate. All tax rate increases damage economic growth and kill jobs by disincentivizing work and investment.”
Trump media allies like Fox Business commentator Larry Kudlow and Fox News host Sean Hannity also slammed the idea in April. Kudlow said it was “among the top three dumbest things I’ve ever heard,” while Hannity added, “It seems to go against everything Donald Trump has ever believed in.”
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[[{“value”:”
President Donald Trump said on Friday that a tax increase on the highest income earners in the country would be “OK” with him, but warned that the move could be politically damaging to Republicans.
Trump made the comment after Punchbowl News reported on Thursday that the president was pushing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to include tax increases on the rich in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” According to The Hill, which cited three sources, the White House would allow Trump’s marginal income tax cut to expire for the wealthiest Americans while keeping tax breaks for lower income brackets.
“The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, “Read my lips,” the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” he added.
Trump’s reference to former President George H.W. Bush goes back to when Bush compromised with Congressional Democrats to increase several existing taxes after famously promising on the campaign trail, “Read my lips: no new taxes.” In the 1992 election cycle, Bill Clinton slammed Bush over the quote, saying he broke an election promise. Clinton went on to defeat Bush in the 1992 election, as independent candidate Ross Perot garnered 18.9% of the vote.
Trump’s pitch to raise taxes on the wealthy would reportedly only apply to those making more than $2.5 million a year for single filers or $5 million for joint filers. That would be substantially higher than the top tax bracket for 2024, which applied to incomes above $609,351 for single filers and $731,201 for joint filers. The tax increase on the wealthiest Americans would revert from the current 37% rate to the 39.6% rate that was in effect before Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, according to Punchbowl News.
Conservatives and Congressional Republicans, including some of Trump’s closest allies, have blasted the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy.
“That would be a tax on every small business, every job creator. And you know what? That’s what Kamala Harris campaigned on,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said during a Thursday appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “And I gotta say, the folks in the administration, they’ve decided to call themselves populists, but just being a Democrat and wanting higher taxes and more regulation, that’s not populist. That’s embracing the failed ideas of Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden.”
Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, stated on Wednesday, “President Trump ran on making all the tax rates reductions permanent. Kamala Harris ran on letting the top income tax rates reductions passed by Trump to spring back to the higher pre-Trump/Obama tax rate. All tax rate increases damage economic growth and kill jobs by disincentivizing work and investment.”
Trump media allies like Fox Business commentator Larry Kudlow and Fox News host Sean Hannity also slammed the idea in April. Kudlow said it was “among the top three dumbest things I’ve ever heard,” while Hannity added, “It seems to go against everything Donald Trump has ever believed in.”
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