Trump About to Flip the Script on Democrats by Raising Taxes on Richest Americans: Report

Imagine tax-cutting President Donald Trump and tax-hiking Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont strolling arm-in-arm through the Washington fields of tax policy.

A new report says that unlikely scenario could come about as the Trump administration looks for ways to avoid a hole in tax revenue once Trump keeps his campaign promise to cut taxes on tips.

The report from Axios, which cites a White House source it did not name, frames the concept of Trump allowing taxes on the richest Americans to increase as part of a wide-ranging discussion within the White House.

During the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he wants to cut taxes on tips, and doubled down on that in his recent address to a joint session of Congress.

“And to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation, I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors,” Trump said then, according to the White House.

To make those promises a reality, Axios said that Trump might increase taxes on the richest Americans.

The 2017 Trump tax cuts cut the top rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. That rate is charged on individuals who report at least $609,351 in income or couples with income of $731,201.

About 1 percent of taxpayers pay the top rate, although their tax payments are more than 1 percent of tax revenue.

The political equation of cutting government while keeping the tax cut concerns some insiders.

“If we renew tax cuts for the rich paid for by throwing people off Medicaid, we’re gonna get f–king slaughtered,” the White House official Axios did not name said.

The philosophical concept of letting any part of the tax cuts expire has drawn public opposition from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to the New York Post.

“This is the single most important economic issue of the day,” Bessent said during his January confirmation hearing.

He said ending the cuts would create “economic calamity and result in a “crushing $4 trillion tax hike.”

In a January speech in Nevada, Trump explained why taxes on tips need to be halted, according to a White House transcript of his comments.

“Nationwide, over 4 million workers depend on tip income, including an estimated 700,000 single moms,” Trump said.

“And here in Nevada, we will have a quarter — think of it, a quarter of the typical restaurant worker’s pay comes from tips,” Trump said.

“Many of these workers are some of the very citizens who were hit hard and very hard by the ravages of the Biden economy, which was inflation,” he said.

“But under the Trump administration, the forgotten men and women of our country are going to be forgotten no longer,” he said.

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.