Center for American Progress

Readers’ best responses: Trump relies on falsehoods to sell his plan
In the News

Readers’ best responses: Trump relies on falsehoods to sell his plan

In his letter to the editor, author Seth Hanlon takes down President Donald Trump's misleading column, which relied on falsehoods to sell a tax plan that gives massive tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy and threatens key priorities such as health care and education.

President Trump’s column “Morning in America dawns again” contained numerous misleading assertions:

  1. He said his plan is aimed at middle-class families. In fact, the richest 1% (people making more than $900,000 a year) will receive 80% of the tax cuts by 2027.
  2. He said the U.S. is “among the highest-taxed nations in the developed world.” In fact, among advanced economies, we rank 32nd out of 35 in tax revenue as a share of our economy.
  3. He claims that one of the tax cuts in his plan is for “small and medium-sized businesses.” It’s actually a new loophole for wealthy business owners like Trump himself that leaves out the vast majority of businesses.

The above excerpt was originally published in USA Today. Click here to view the full article.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Authors

Seth Hanlon

Former Acting Vice President, Economy