Trump Comments ON Republicans Wishing To Raise Taxes
In a twist that’s as strategic as it is symbolic, former President Donald Trump signaled last Friday that he might be open to something Republicans have traditionally loathed: raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Speaking through Truth Social, Trump downplayed the impact of a “tiny” tax hike on high-income earners, but he issued a familiar warning — not just about economic consequences, but political ones.
Trump’s comments came on the heels of a Punchbowl News report that revealed he’s been urging Speaker Mike Johnson to include a tax increase in what he calls his “big, beautiful bill.”
According to The Hill, the proposed hike would target those earning over $2.5 million for individuals and $5 million for joint filers — well above the current top federal tax bracket, which kicks in at just over $600,000. In essence, Trump is suggesting a return to the pre-2017 top marginal rate of 39.6%, up from the 37% level implemented under his signature tax reform law.
That law, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, slashed rates across the board and became a cornerstone of Trump’s economic legacy. So why flirt with reversing part of it now?
Trump framed the idea as a gesture of populist goodwill — one that he and “all others” in the high-income category would “graciously accept” if it meant helping America’s middle- and working-class citizens.
But in the same breath, he reminded his audience of what happened when George H.W. Bush broke his famous “no new taxes” pledge. According to Trump, it wasn’t the tax hike that sank Bush’s reelection, it was Ross Perot’s third-party run — yet he still issued a half-hearted warning: “Republicans should probably not do it.”
The backlash from conservatives was swift and unforgiving. Sen. Ted Cruz equated the idea to the tax agenda of Kamala Harris, branding it anti-small business and anti-growth. Grover Norquist, the anti-tax crusader behind Americans for Tax Reform, went further, arguing that any rollback of the 2017 cuts would deal a blow to economic growth and job creation.
Right-wing media allies weren’t far behind: Larry Kudlow called it one of the “top three dumbest things” he’d heard, and Sean Hannity questioned whether Trump was abandoning his own economic principles.
And yet, despite the firestorm, Trump seems to be threading a very particular needle. He’s giving himself rhetorical room to embrace a tax tweak that might soften his populist credentials among working-class voters, while simultaneously signaling to fiscal hawks that he’s not fully committed to the idea.