Trump sends mixed signals on possible tax hike



President Donald Trump allegedly urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) during a phone call Wednesday to raise the top tax rate, albeit at a much higher income level, and close the carried interest loophole amid Republican lawmakers' efforts to finalize their Trump agenda bill.

The president indicated a change of mind Friday morning, however, suggesting on Truth Social that "Republicans should probably not do it."

Last month, Trump and Johnson shot down the idea of a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans.

The president said in his April 22 interview with Time magazine, "I certainly don't mind having a tax increase."

'Our party is the group that stands against that traditionally.'

"I actually love the concept," continued Trump, "but I don't want it to be used against me politically, because I've seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news."

The following day, Trump came out against the idea more forcefully, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the idea of a tax hike was "very disruptive," as it might prompt wealthy individuals to flee the country, reported Politico.

"You know, the old days, they left states. They go from one state to the other. Now with transportation so quick and so easy, they leave countries. You lose a lot of money if you do that," said Trump.

Johnson similarly came out swinging against a tax hike on April 23, telling "The Will Cain Show" last month, "We have been working against that idea. I'm not in favor of raising the tax rates because our party is the group that stands against that traditionally."

A number of provisions enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 are set to expire in December. Unless lawmakers extend the cuts, tax brackets will revert back to pre-TCJA levels. Accordingly the top individual, estate, and income tax bracket would return to 39.6% from the current rate of 37%.

One unnamed Republican source said to be familiar with Trump's Wednesday call with Johnson told NBC News that the president was considering allowing the rate to revert to 39.6% "to protect Medicaid and help pay for middle- and working-class tax cuts."

Multiple sources suggested to The Hill that while the White House advocated for allowing the top marginal income tax rate cut to expire, the administration wanted to see the 2017 cuts extended for Americans in the lower tax brackets. While the top income bracket starts this year at $626,350 per individual, the New York Times indicated the proposed restoration of the previous top rate would apply to individuals earning over $2.5 million annually.

The Hill noted that a spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee declined to comment on any policy specifics under consideration, and the White House did not return the outlet's request for comment.

'I'm OK if they do!'

When asked about the proposed tax income increase on the upper brackets, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told "The Hugh Hewitt Show" Thursday that he was "not excited about the proposal but I have to say there are a number of people in both the House and the Senate who are."

Crapo added, "If the president weighs in in favor of it, then that's going to be a big factor that we have to take into consideration."

Trump noted in a social media post on Friday, "The problem with even a 'TINY' tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, 'Read my lips,' the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election."

"NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election!" continued Trump. "In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I'm OK if they do!"

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Trump calls on 'wacky crook' Letitia James to resign after troubling fraud allegation surfaces



The tides may have turned for President Donald Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who once went after him for fraud, after some documents connected with a house in Virginia revealed James may now be the one in hot water.

Late Sunday night, Trump posted an ominous message to Truth Social: "Letitia James, a totally corrupt politician, should resign from her position as New York State Attorney General, IMMEDIATELY. Everyone is trying to MAKE NEW YORK GREAT AGAIN, and it can never be done with this wacky crook in office."

'I intend to occupy this property as my principal residence.'

Trump's social media post also included a link to a report about a house in Norfolk, Virginia, that James and Shamice Thompson-Hairston, described as a relative of James, apparently purchased together in August 2023.

The house is a rather unremarkable three-bedroom, one-bathroom residence built in 1947. The women apparently purchased it for $240,000, securing a mortgage for just under $220,000.

The Virginia land records about the purchase include a "specific power of attorney" document authorizing Thompson-Hairston to act as James' attorney-in-fact. In this document, James states: "I HEREBY DECLARE that I intend to occupy this property as my principal residence."

Screenshot of land record

The "specific power of attorney" document was signed and notarized on August 17, 2023. Except for the inclusion of her middle initial, the signature that appears on it seems to match the signature James regularly stamps on New York documents.

Screenshot of land record

Screenshot of New York state website

On August 31, 2023, Thompson-Hairston signed a statement claiming that she would serve as James' attorney-in-fact. Another document included in the land record obligates both women to "occupy, establish, and use" the Norfolk home as their "principal residence" within 60 days and to keep it their "principal residence" for at least one year.

If these Virginia documents are authentic, then James appears to be in a double bind.

At the time they were signed, James had already been the attorney general of New York for four years. Funded in part by billionaire financier George Soros, James campaigned in 2018 on a promise of "getting" Trump and later publicly fantasized about "suing" him.

Since she elevated to executive statewide office, she is required to reside in New York. According to New York law, once a state executive "ceas[es] to be an inhabitant of the state," the office is considered vacant.

'Can she document continued New York residency during this period sufficient to maintain her legal authority as Attorney General?'

In October 2023, just two months after the documents were signed, James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump, accusing him and others affiliated with the Trump Organization of overvaluing properties to negotiate better deals with banks and insurance companies. A jury agreed and slapped the organization with a staggering $455 million judgment.

The judgment is currently under appeal, and members of a New York appeals court already signaled support for overturning or at least reducing it.

If James' primary residence in 2023 and 2024 was actually in Virginia, her standing as attorney general — and in the Trump case as well as others — is dubious.

Moreover, a possible motive for declaring a property to be an owner's primary residence would be to secure a lower interest rate on a mortgage. If James misrepresented the Virginia property as her "principal residence," she could have committed the same type of fraud she accused the Trump organization of perpetrating.

In fact, reports have speculated that such false statements could even be considered federal wire fraud, a charge that carries decades in prison and fines of up to $1 million. The Department of Justice, now under Trump's purview, would be in a position to file such charges, if leaders are so inclined.

For now, the most significant drawback to the allegations against James is the fact that they were first raised in the blog White Collar Fraud by convicted fraudster Sam Antar. In the late 1980s, Antar was the CFO of Crazy Eddie, a Brooklyn-based electronics chain that went under after serious financial corruption was exposed.

Antar managed to escape prison time by copping a plea deal. He then made a "Catch Me If You Can" turnaround of sorts and became an investigator of white-collar financial crime.

In addition to publishing the Virginia land documents and explaining their relevance, Antar posed four important questions regarding James and her political future:

Why did James explicitly declare her intent to make Virginia her principal residence while serving as New York’s Attorney General?

Did she fulfill the 60-day occupancy requirement in her mortgage while simultaneously appearing in New York courts?

Can she document continued New York residency during this period sufficient to maintain her legal authority as Attorney General?

Will this affect her eligibility to run for re-election, which requires uninterrupted New York residency?
James' office and Thompson-Hairston did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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Democrats Who Ignored Biden’s ‘Aggressive’ Tax Avoidance Act Outraged Dr. Oz May Have Underpaid

After spending four years ignoring Biden’s tax maneuvers, Democrats decided one of Trump’s nominees deserved defeat for allegedly using similar tactics.

DOGE shows up at IRS, sending taxmen into panic



The Department of Government Efficiency has managed in just a few weeks to inspire dread among various contributors to and beneficiaries of government waste.

After making its penetrating gaze felt at over a dozen federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the DOGE set its sights on the Internal Revenue Service.

Sure enough, bureaucrats at the organization that the Obama administration weaponized against conservatives have begun to panic.

Two unnamed sources said to be familiar with the matter told Reuters that one of Elon Musk's top DOGE staffers, Gavin Kliger, arrived at the IRS Thursday to scrutinize the agency's operations. Kliger reportedly met with top executives at the agency who were separately instructed in an email to identify all "non-essential" contracts for termination.

"Consistent with the goals and directives of the Trump administration to eliminate waste, reduce spending, and increase efficiency, GSA [General Services Administration] has taken the first steps in a government-wide initiative to eliminate non-essential consulting contracts," said the email.

According to CNN, Kliger apparently asked for a description of what each business unit in the agency did, what it sought to accomplish in the next 90 days, and what risks it currently faces. Despite the straightforward nature of the DOGE member's questions, Kliger's visit reportedly left IRS staffers on edge.

IRS staffers were apparently not the only ones in Washington, D.C., concerned over the prospect of greater transparency and improved efficiency.

'It's poetic justice.'

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon rushed to concern-monger on X, writing, "My office is hearing that DOGE is now at the IRS. That means Musk's henchmen are in a position to dig through a trove of data about every taxpayer in America. And if your refund is delayed, they could very well be the reason."

When asked about Kliger and other DOGE officials' visit to the IRS, President Donald Trump told reporters, "They're doing a hell of a job. It's an amazing job they're doing."

"Their force is building. I call it the force of super-geniuses," said Trump. "They go up and they talk to some of the people about certain deals, and the people get all tongue-tied. They can't talk because these people get it. They're very smart people."

Trump suggested that he does not plan to shutter the IRS but noted that the agency "will be looked at like everybody else."

Christian Whiton, a senior adviser in the first Trump administration, told Sky News, "It's poetic justice for the IRS to be facing scrutiny since they scrutinize the rest of us."

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Trump Vows To Make Interest On Car Loans Tax Deductible During Speech In Blue Wall State

Trump’s proposal aligns with his broader tax reform agenda

Trump vows to eliminate taxes on overtime — a potential winner among some of 'the hardest-working citizens'



President Donald Trump vowed at his rally in Tuscon, Arizona, Thursday that he would eliminate all taxes on overtime pay — an unprecedented proposal from the federal government. This is part of a broader raft of proposed tax cuts, one of which is apparently so popular as to drive Kamala Harris to adopt it as her own.

"We will end all taxes on overtime," said Trump. "You know what that means? Think about it."

Trump suggested not only that Americans would have a greater incentive to work more if they knew the government wasn't skimming off the top but that businesses would have a easier time with recruitment and retention.

'It's time for the working man and woman to finally catch a break.'

"The people who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens in our country. And for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them," continued Trump. "They're police officers, nurses, factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers, and machine operators. It's time for the working man and woman to finally catch a break."

The Labor Department under Trump issued a rule in 2019 making overtime pay available to an additional 1.3 million workers. It did so by raising the salary level that companies would have to pay in order to avoid paying workers at least 1.5 times their regular pay rate for work in excess of 40 hours a week.

Even though millions of Americans benefited, supposed labor activists, Democrats, and the liberal media criticized Trump's salary-level increase, suggesting it was not as generous as one of President Barack Obama's failed schemes.

Piggybacking on the success of Trump's rule, the Biden administration announced a final rule in April further increasing the salary threshold required to exempt workers from federal overtime pay requirements — from $36,568 to $43,888 by July 1, 2024, and to $58,656 by Jan. 1, 2025.

As a result of the 2019 and 2024 threshold increases, a great many Americans would be able to avoid forking over their hard-won overtime earnings to the government under Trump's proposed tax policy.

Reuters noted that while this proposal is a first from the federal government, Alabama paved the way this year, becoming the first state in the union to exclude overtime wages for hourly workers from state taxes. The move is, however, temporary.

According to the Tax Foundation, which has been tracking proposed tax policies on the campaign trail, Trump has said he would also:

  • exempt tips from income taxes;
  • lower the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 20% and lower the corporate income tax rate to 15% for companies that make their products in the United States;
  • make permanent his 2017 individual income tax cuts, which are now nearing expiration;
  • consider swapping out personal income taxes for increased tariffs on imports;
  • exempt Social Security benefits from income tax; and
  • impose a 60% tariff on imports from China.

It appears the Harris campaign did not take Trump's announcement well.

A Harris campaign spokesman said, "He is desperate and scrambling and saying whatever it takes to try to trick people into voting for him."

It is unclear whether Harris, who was recently exposed copying and pasting policies from her former running mate, will also claim this proposal for her own.

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Bill Belichick talks taxes and why athletes are flocking from Massachusetts



Bill Belichick, former New England Patriots head coach and one of the most decorated coaches in the history of the NFL, is talking taxes.

According to legend, a Massachusetts law is discouraging star football players from signing with the New England Patriots.

“It’s Taxachusetts,” he jested. “Even the minimum players are pretty close to a million dollars, and so once you hit that million-dollar threshold, then you pay more state tax in Massachusetts.”

Rob Eno, BlazeTV Media Critic and a Massachusetts native, joins Jill Savage and the “Blaze News Tonight” panel to explain why athletes may be financially incentivized to sign with teams from states with more sensible tax codes and “why football is affected more than other professional sports.”

- YouTube www.youtube.com

“In November 2022, the citizens of Massachusetts actually voted to get rid of the Constitutional amendment that said they can't have a progressive income tax,” Eno explained, adding that instead, citizens opted to “have a one tax rate flat rate of 5%” as well as “a millionaire surtax of 4%.”

He points to NBA forward Grant Williams as an example of why athletes are flocking away from Massachusetts.

Williams, who played four seasons with the Boston Celtics, compared a Massachusetts’ salary of “$48 million with the millionaire’s tax” to the Dallas, Texas, equivalent of “$54 million.”

“There's this jock tax. ... Even if you live in Dallas, you're going to pay California taxes or Boston taxes for the day games that you do there, but if you live in Massachusetts or if you work for the Boston Celtics or you work for the New England Patriots and you come to Dallas, you're still going to pay that Massachusetts tax rate because that's the state where you're earning the money,” Eno explains.

The millionaire’s tax isn’t just hurting athletes though.

“The CPAs in Boston ... that deal with high-net-worth individuals have said that they have at least one client that's looking to leave. ... The owner of the Boston Celtics is making plans to leave” due to an “estate tax in Massachusetts,” Eno reports.

“Is this actually hurting the [Patriot’s] roster?” asks Jill.

“I think it’s actually hurting the roster, and I think that all of the teams are seeing this,” says Eno. “Major League Baseball and the [NBA], there’s luxury taxes,” but “in football, you can’t do that.”

“[Belichick] is actually making a political statement,” says Blaze Media’s editor in chief Matthew Peterson.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.

Kamala Harris' wealth redistribution plans could prove both costly and ineffective



The Harris campaign revealed this week that if the Democratic vice president and her running mate — who apparently thinks that communism means that "everyone is the same and everyone shares" — win in November, then they will slap Americans with various new taxes, including a tax on unrealized gains.

Despite claiming to be fiscally responsible, Harris and Walz would simultaneously redistribute American wealth in a manner some economists have indicated will exacerbate the very problems they are supposedly intended to remedy.

The official 2024 Democratic Party platform was released Monday, revealing what former presidential candidate Joe Biden apparently planned to do if afforded another term. It turns out that just as Kamala Harris was ready to adopt Biden's candidacy and his committed delegates, she is now also ready to embrace many of the policy proposals attributed to him in the document.

Those proposals include raising the federal corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

Communist China's federal corporate income tax rate is, by way of comparison, reportedly 25%.

Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer confirmed to Reuters that Harris plans on raising the rate, claiming it would be part of a "fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share."

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans previously cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. When ratifying the bill, Trump noted, "It's going to be a tremendous thing for the American people. It's going to be fantastic for the economy. It's going to keep companies from leaving our shores."

A 2017 Tax Foundation study indicated that "empirical evidence seems to support earlier theoretical analysis that domestic U.S. labor bears the largest portion of the burden of the U.S. corporate income tax."

"The share of the burden falling on labor is routinely found to be between 50 percent and 100 percent, with 70 percent or higher the most likely outcome," said the study. "As the tax reduces investment, productivity, and wages, the dollar amount of the cost to labor may exceed the revenue raised by the tax by a wide margin."

Extra to adversely impacting labor, this Harris tax hike would also adversely impact the stock market.

Strategists at Goldman Sachs told Reuters that each percentage point change in the corporate tax rate could shift S&P 500 earnings by "slightly less than 1%."

Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel, said, "Anything that reduces earnings should ... have a negative impact on the stock market."

Harris — who, as vice president, oversaw the U.S. national debt topping $35 trillion and championed various handouts along the way, including the taxpayer-funded subsidization of college education for hundreds of thousands of student debtors — has other taxes planned for 2025, around the same time various other Trump-era tax cuts are set to expire.

'The taxing of unrealized gains, no matter what the level of wealth, will drive assets, jobs and companies away from the United States.'

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration proposed in its FY 2025 budget a 44.6% capital gains rate, reported Moodys Private Client. This increase — from the current rate of 20% left over from the Trump tax reform — would constitute the highest federal capital gains rate in American history.

The Harris campaign told the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget that she "continues to support all of the revenue-raising provisions in the President's FY 2025 budget."

According to Americans for Tax Reform, the Harris-endorsed budget proposal also calls for a yearly 25% minimum tax on unrealized gains. While initially, this would target only the sliver minority of individuals with income and assets exceeding $100 million, critics suspect this "unconstitutional wealth tax" might ultimately be expanded to millions of Americans.

"Capital gains taxes should only be paid when a gain is realized. Harris's wealth tax would break with current tax policy and impose tax Americans based on the value of an asset on a particular arbitrary date," stated Americans for Tax Reform. "This unprecedented tax would give even more power to the IRS, encourage taxpayers to move assets overseas, and will only expand to hit millions of Americans over time."

TheStreet's Bob Byrne expressed similar concerns, noting, "While this only impacts a handful of people, and the measure is highly unlikely to pass, even the concept is worrisome. The taxing of unrealized gains, no matter what the level of wealth, will drive assets, jobs and companies away from the United States."

Harris has provided a few indications of how she might redistribute some of this wealth.

Harris intends to have taxpayers inadvertently provide a $25,000 handout to first-time and certain other prospective homeowners.

Some economists suspect this is an exercise in futility.

Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody's, recently told Axios Moody's that this house credit for buyers would increase demand and "translate quickly into higher prices."

While the Democratic platform claims the party is "working to end special interest giveaways," this scheme would no doubt be a big win for those big investment firms that have bought up residential real estate across the country.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget indicated this handout would cost $100 billion over four years, though the number "could be higher and lead to additional costs."

Americans for Tax Reform noted that Harris has endorsed other tax hikes including raising Medicare taxes from 3.8% to 5% for those making over $400,000 a year.

While such taxes are necessarily coercive, the Harris-Walz campaign suggested in an Aug. 16 release it was simply "asking the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations to pay their fair share."

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