In response to new reporting exposing Donald Trump’s desire to give more tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy at the expense of America’s middle class, DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement: 

“You don’t have to be ‘behind closed doors’ to know that the same guy rooting for the economy to crash doesn’t really care about tax relief for working families. Donald Trump and the rest of the 2024 field are running on the same failed playbook of Trump’s tax scam 2.0: promises to rig the economy for the richest Americans by gifting more tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. Last time around, Trump’s tax scam lined the pockets of his rich friends, incentivized companies to ship American jobs overseas, and ballooned the national debt. Now, MAGA Republicans are telling their wealthy, corporate backers they’re ready to do it all over again. While Republicans fight over who can suck up the most to the ultra-rich, President Biden is laser-focused on boosting the middle class and creating jobs here at home – not kickbacks for the wealthy to send jobs overseas.”

NEW: Donald Trump is dead set on bringing back his unpopular and failed MAGAnomics agenda that benefited the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the middle class.

Washington Post: “Behind closed doors, Trump eyes second round of corporate tax cuts”

“Privately, Trump has told allies that he is keenly interested in cutting corporate tax rates again … Three of Trump’s senior economic policy advisers also said privately that they see the corporate tax cut as an enormous success and believe it should be expanded in a second term.”

“Trump’s 2017 tax law cut the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, though Trump at the time wanted to lower it to 15 percent. … Asked by NBC about if he would cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, Trump said that he would ‘like to lower them a little bit if we could.’”

“Nonpartisan estimates have found that Trump’s tax cut added more than $2 trillion to the federal debt. In 2018, the richest 20 percent of taxpayers saw an average of $7,600 in savings from the 2017 tax law, compared with just $930 in savings for middle-income households, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. Making the tax cuts permanent would cost $3 trillion, the center said in 2022. More than 60 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 20 percent of Americans, and more than 40 percent of the benefits to those earning above $400,000 annually.”

Trump has repeatedly doubled down on his promise to make permanent and extend his disastrous MAGAnomics tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy.

Trump: “I will never let the Trump tax cuts … I will never let them be taken away.”

Trump: “You’re all people that have a lot of money … You’re rich as hell. … We’re gonna give you tax cuts.”

Trump: “We will replace Biden’s tax hikes with the beautiful Trump tax cuts. You know, we have to extend the tax cuts.”

Trump on whether his second term tax policies would echo those of his first term: “Yes, and I’d do even more taxes.”

Washington Post: “The former president’s closest economic advisers are plotting an aggressive new set of tax cuts to push on the campaign trail and from the Oval Office if he wins a second term. Trump and his advisers have discussed deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates that would build on his controversial 2017 tax law … Trump’s advisers, though, have discussed proposals to make deeper cuts to the overall corporate tax rate, potentially to as low as 15 percent, or to use the revenue from the proposed tariffs to pay a dividend to U.S. households. Further cutting corporate taxes … would primarily benefit large firms.”

Bloomberg: “[Trump] intends to center his economic plans on extending and deepening the Republican tax cuts from 2017.”

Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”

Trump is also openly admitting that he wants the economy to crash so it would benefit him politically — with no regard for how it would hurt hardworking families. 

Trump: “And when there’s a crash — I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.”

Business Insider: “Trump says he hopes the US economy will crash within the next year to avoid being a ‘Herbert Hoover’”

Daily Beast: “Donald Trump admitted Monday that he wants a severe economic downturn to happen during the next year, because it will help his odds of winning the presidential election.”

Haley and DeSantis have supported and continue to campaign on extending Trump’s tax giveaways for America’s wealthiest – and both have records of cutting taxes for the ultra-rich and big corporations as governors of their respective states. 

Haley on tax rates for the ultra-wealthy: “Well, I think what I’d like to see is us go back to what Trump had under the tax cuts under him … I was there.”

DeSantis on whether he’d keep Trump’s tax rates in place: “The current rates that are due to expire, we want to keep those rates in place.”

Bloomberg: “DeSantis voted in the US House in favor of the 2017 Trump tax cuts. He has proposed extending the lower individual tax rates before they expire in 2025.”

Augusta Chronicle: “State budget advisers predict eliminating South Carolina’s corporate income tax over four years, as both Haley and House Republicans propose, would reduce state revenues by $61.6 million in the first year and $218.3 million annually when the phase-out is complete. But the amount of money South Carolina collects from the tax has varied yearly – as low as $101.4 million in 2002-03 to a high of $268.6 million in 2007-08.”

Seeking Rents: “Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled state Legislature teamed up to pass a pair of bills that made it easier for billionaires to hide their fortunes from the outside world — and from federal taxes.”

Orlando Sentinel: “The package doesn’t provide direct relief for the millions of Floridians who have seen their rent go up astronomically in recent years. Instead, it relies on a trickle-down approach by giving tax incentives to developers in exchange for lower-than-market-value rental rates on their projects. The proposal comes as Florida renters saw rates jump 21% from 2020 to 2021 and continue to rise through most of 2022.”

Miami Herald: “It’s unclear if any of the changes will lead to lower rates any time soon for Floridians, who are paying the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the nation. But hundreds of thousands of homeowners covered by state-run Citizens Property Insurance are almost guaranteed to end up paying more.”

REMINDER: Trump’s 2017 MAGAnomics tax scam was a boon for corporations and the ultra-wealthy that left the middle class behind.

Forbes: “Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than The Working Class In 2018”

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

The Guardian: “They were billed as a ‘middle-class miracle’ but according to a new book Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”

Economic Policy Institute: “The TCJA overwhelmingly benefited the rich and corporations while overlooking working families”

ProPublica: “In the first year after Trump signed the legislation, just 82 ultrawealthy households collectively walked away with more than $1 billion in total savings, an analysis of confidential tax records shows.”