A top economic adviser to President Trump said new taxes on the rich aren't likely - despite Trump's suggestion that it would be "good politics" to make top earners pay more.
A day before Republicans released their tax plan, Kevin Hassett said a tax hike on the rich is "probably not going to happen."
“No, it’s not in the plan right now,” Kevin Hassett told Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures.
Trump has floated a tax hike on the rich to help pay for his sweeping agenda, which includes a tax cut for workers who rely on tips - an idea his electoral opponent Kamala Harris adopted.
Republicans in Congress have resisted Trump's push to raise taxes on the rich, which runs afoul of conservative orthodoxy against raising taxes.
Draft legislation released Monday includes many of Trump's tax proposals, including tax cuts on tips, overtime, and Social Security, but the bill does not include a tax hike on the wealthy.
“But it’s probably not going to happen," Hassett had said of the tax hike. "He literally is putting his priorities first and those priorities are in both versions of the bill that I’ve seen.”
Republicans in Congress are trying to pass Trump's agenda in one "big, beautiful bill," with his first-term tax cuts in danger of expiring at the end of the year.
“But the president is clear that he’s got the objectives that he wants to achieve for the American worker like no tax on overtime," Hassett said.
"That no tax on overtime, by the way, it’s a huge benefit. We were doing some estimates that for a typical unionized worker might be 100, 200 dollars a week. He’s got those things as top priorities in the bill.”
Trump has said any tax increase on the rich would be small, and that it would be "good politics" to make the rich pay for tax relief for those earning less.
"I actually think it's good politics to do it where richer people give up. And it's a very small – it's like a point – but they give it up to benefit the people on lower income," Trump told reporters at the White House last week.
Still, in a Truth Social post, Trump said Republicans "should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!”
At this stage, it appears clear that Republicans do not have the appetite for Trump's proposal.
