Trump says “as a rich person”, it would not be disturbing to pay more taxes

President Donald Trump said it would not be disturbing to pay more taxes himself, but he is not entirely convinced that the Republicans of the Congress should increase taxes on millionaires.

“Well, I will tell you, I certainly disturb me to have a tax increase,” Trump told Time magazine in a large interview published on Friday.

Trump said the reason why he hesitates to such a policy is due to the quantity of political heat that President George HW Bush has taken an agreement with the Democrats of Congress who violated his commitment to “read my lips: no new taxes”.

Unlike many Republican colleagues, Trump said that he supported the general concept of forcing the rich to pay more for the middle class.

“I would breed them on rich to take care of the middle class. And that’s – I like it,” said Trump. “I love the concept, but I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I saw people lose elections for less, especially with false news.”

According to Time, Trump made his comments on Tuesday. A day later, it appeared that the president had radically changed his air on the subject.

“I think it would be very disruptive because many millionaires would leave the country,” Trump told journalists in the oval office on Wednesday. “In the past, they have left the States. They go from one state to another. Now, with the transport so fast and so easy, they leave the countries.”

Trump said the United States “will lose a lot of money” if it increased taxes over millionaires.

“And other countries that have done it have lost many people,” he said. “They lose their rich. It would be bad, because the rich pay the tax.”

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request to explain the apparent gap in Trump’s comments.

The Republicans of Capitol Hill would consider increasing taxes on the highest wages to help cover the cost of tax reduction and Trump immigration legislation, which the president described his “big and beautiful bill”. Republicans use a special procedural power that would allow them to adopt the bill without the support of a single democratic vote. It also means that with thin majorities in both houses, Trump and Republican leaders cannot afford to lose a few votes.

Trump’s previous income statements show that he has paid little federal taxes for many years. During his strong objections, the Democrats of the Chamber in 2022 publicly published six years of returns from Trump. Documents have shown that Trump had paid $ 750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and no tax in 2020. Some Trump yields were previously revealed by the New York Times, which obtained Trump’s financial data for two decades. According to Times, Trump paid $ 0 in income tax in 10 of the 15 years before his first elected president.

Trump’s fortune has increased considerably since then. Forbes estimates that its net value in real time is $ 5.2 billion, almost entirely attributable to the participation of his trust in the mother company of Truth Sociales, the social network he launched after having left his duties.

The former White House advisor Steve Bannon, who remains close to Trump, previously said that he was to increase taxes, even the tax rate of companies.

“I am for a spectacular increase in corporate taxes,” said Bannon recently in Semaor. “We have to increase taxes on the rich.”