President Donald Trump said the only reason he wouldn’t support an increase in the tax rate for millionaires is because it could lead to election losses for Republicans.
“I’ll tell ya, I certainly don’t mind having a tax increase,” he told Time as part of a broad-ranging interview to mark his first 100 days in office.” He added, “I actually love the concept” of raising taxes on the wealthy to take care of the middle class, “but I don’t want it to be used against me politically.”
The comments came after Trump was asked about some discussions swirling among his party: raising taxes on Americans making more than $1 million a year as part of a tax package under consideration in Congress.
But Trump said he’s paying attention to history.
“The only reason I wouldn’t support [a millionaire tax hike] is because I saw [George H. W.] Bush where they said, where he said, “Read my lips” and he lost an election,” Trump said. “He would have lost it anyway, but he lost an election. He got beat up pretty good.”
Bush said his infamous “Read my lips, no new taxes” line when he accepted the Republican nomination for president in 1988. When taxes were ultimately passed during his term, it hurt Bush significantly.
Trump, whose personal fortune is well above $1 million (estimated to be over $5 billion on Forbes’ real-time billionaires list), said he would be “honored to pay more” in taxes. “But I don’t want to be in a position where we lose an election because I was generous,” he added.
The president said a millionaire tax wouldn’t even be that onerous.
“We’re talking about one point,” Trump said. “It doesn’t make that much difference, and yet, I could just see somebody trying to bring that up as a subject, and, you know, say, ‘Oh, he raised taxes.’”
He said, “I’ve seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news.”
In the interview with Time, Trump also said he would veto any bill that imposed cuts on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.
Republicans in Congress want to extend the 2017 tax bill, but that would add more than $4 trillion in tax cuts extensions and balloon the national debt. Due to a budget resolution that Congress adopted earlier this month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, must find at least $880 billion in savings over 10 years to offset the tax cuts.