Opinion

The ‘Holy Grail’ Of Trumpism Is Not Corporate Tax Cuts

Scott Greer Contributor
Font Size:

President Trump delivered his pitch on tax reform in Missouri Wednesday, essentially announcing that he has moved on from health care as his legislative priority.

“Tax reform must dramatically simplify the tax code, eliminate special interest loopholes, and I’m speaking against myself when I do this, I have to tell you,” Trump said in his statement, trying to dress the proposal in the populist language that won him the election.

Taking a stab at cutting taxes seems like a better bet for passage than repealing Obamacare, and the president is in desperate need of a major legislative victory.

But it seems odd that this issue has become the main priority for Trump. The president won the election on a populist economic message, restricting immigration and draining the swamp of elite power.

Tax cuts are pretty much the issue that has defined the Republican establishment for years. It’s an idea that carries a lot of appeal, but many of the proposals associated with the measure come out to helping the wealthiest at the expense of the rest of society.

Contrary to the populist nature of Trumpism, some of these 1 percenter-friendly tax ideas are coming to the fore in drafting tax reform. It was reported last week that some Republicans are mulling taxing workers’ 401ks in order to offset massive cuts to the corporate tax rate — an idea that literally takes money away from average Joes to help CEOs.

It’s not as if tax cuts are anathema to the agenda Trump campaigned on, but with little development on the issues he discussed the most on the trail — infrastructure, immigration, trade, etc. — it should come as an obvious disappointment for his supporters.

With Steve Bannon and other Trumpists out of the White House, there’s the reasonable worry among the president’s longest supporters that he may transition a more establishment agenda. See Ann Coulter’s Twitter rant about the subject from Wednesday for proof of this disenchantment. (RELATED: Coulter Nukes Trump On Taxes — ‘Jeb! Had Better Ideas)

In incredibly partisan terms, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka, who previously served on the president’s business council, accurately described the situation how the populists lost out to the “Wall Streeters” in the administration.

“The Wall Streeters began to dominate the administration and have moved [Trump’s] agenda back to everything he fought against in the election,” Trumka told reporters this week.

As a sign of this development, a few individuals have tried to redefine Trumpism as traditional GOP orthodoxy.

Former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes recently claimed that tax cuts are actually the heart and soul of Trumpism.

“I do think tax cuts are front and center. I think that’s the holy grail of the Trump movement,” Cortes said during an August appearance on Fox & Friends .

This statement seems at odds with Trump’s populist appeal that helped him win Rust Belt voters, but perfectly aligned with the new focus of the administration.

Gary Cohn, the White House economic adviser who is loathed by Trumpists, has declared the president’s agenda now “revolve[s]” around tax reform — not infrastructure or immigration.

What tax reform will look like is still an unanswered question, but it will most likely not include populist proposals like Bannon’s idea for raising taxes on multi-millionaires. Instead, it will be shaped by people like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Cohn, namely the people whom Trump campaigned against.

It may seem like Trumpism has all but disappeared from the White House if not for the man occupying the Oval Office itself. Trump still sticks to his instincts and disregards the counsel of his moderate advisers, such as in his defense of Confederate statues.

But those instincts alone are not enough for him to push a legislative agenda in line with his base.

As previously noted, Trump is in desperate need of a major legislative victory. If he can get a tax reform passed that rewards the middle- and working-class without catering too much to corporate interests, then it will be a success.

But the populist movement he helped usher in won’t survive if his only legislative accomplishment is giving tax breaks to millionaires at the expense of middle America.

Follow Scott on Twitter and buy his new book, “No Campus for White Men.”