During his first term in office, one of the main weapons of President Donald Trump's arsenal was the use of tariffs to protect American businesses and pressure foreign leaders to give in to American demands. The 45th president's recent remarks to lawmakers at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC on Thursday reveals that Trump may take that approach a step further by bringing in revenue for the government via tariffs and abolishing the income tax.
The income tax, which was established in 1913, funds more than half of the budget of the federal government while nine percent comes from corporate taxes, and 30 percent from payroll taxes. If Trump were to follow through with the idea, it would be one of the most consequential decisions of his presidency that would reimagine the tax system to allow for hard-working Americans to keep what they earn. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said that the proposal was the "most intriguing policy idea" from the meeting.
Trump also discussed using tariffs as a weapon against other countrires to achieve policy goals such as when he allegedly threatened Mexico with tariffs if they refused to enact the 'Remain in Mexico' policy to stem immigration in 2019.
Following the meeting with Congressional Republicans, Trump wrote on Truth Social, "Great meeting with Republican Representatives. Lots discussed, all positive, great poll numbers!" The ex-president also spoke to the press after meeting with the Senate GOP, where he mended fences with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
"There's tremendous unity in the Republican Party. We want to see borders. We want to see a strong military. We want to see money not wasted all over the world. We don't want to see Russian ships right off of the coast of Florida," Trump said. "We want to see success for our country, but we don't have success right now. We have inflation that's killing everybody. We have levels of inflation that nobody's seen for, they say, 42 years, they say, 53 years, and they say 75 years. I would say all of them are wrong. Probably, we've never seen levels like this before, and we are going to end that."
"We have to get elected. We have to take this beautiful place, and we have to make it really something special. Right now, it's not special," Trump said about the state of the country. "Right now, it's being scorned. When they look at the crimes on the streets, when they look at all of the problems that we have, they're using us as a bad example of democracy."
President Trump has repeatedly shown that he is willing to set aside orthodox thinking and pursue policy priorities that are in the best interest of America's citizens. His proposal to eliminate the income tax and fund the government through tariffs, the way the federal government was funded for the first 150 years since the nation's founding, is bold and should be strongly considered once Trump takes the White House in November.
https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1801324750859350482
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