In Michigan, during remarks before the Detroit Economic Club, former President Trump vowed to make interest on car loans fully tax deductible, a proposal that would be a boon to the automobile industry in Michigan and elsewhere – and which is merely the latest promise in what has become a pattern.
Trump told voters in Nevada that he would eliminate taxes on tips earlier this summer. The Republican nominee followed that up this fall by promising to restore the state and local tax deduction, a key tax deduction that he and congressional Republicans eliminated while president and which, if restored, would be a benefit to suburban voters in states like New York, New Jersey, and California. Trump has also called for making Social Security benefits tax-free.
Seniors, who would benefit from that last proposal, live, well, everywhere. While Americans over 50 are the largest voting bloc, the beneficiaries of the latest tax slash are much smaller: Citizens living abroad.
“I support ending the double taxation of overseas Americans,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal Thursday, a reference to his plan to lower the tax burden of the small number of citizens who pay both federal taxes and taxes to the foreign government where they reside. As the Journal reported, it was a play to win support from an often-overlooked group of voters.
All the proposed tax slashing has left some heads reeling.
“Trump’s just throwing darts at the populist-pandering dart board. Economic coherence be damned,” said Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a center-right think tank. The politics, meanwhile, are undeniable. Vice President Kamala Harris found herself playing catch up when she unveiled a similar “no tax on tips” proposal.
Republicans complain that Harris is playing “copy-cat.” Her proposal does differ from that of Trump, however, in that she supports eliminating taxes on tips only for those making under $75,000 and would pair that reform with legislation boosting the minimum wage for tipped workers from $2.13 an hour to $7.25. She has also slammed Trump’s tariff proposal as “a sales tax on the American people.”
From the call to make auto loans tax-deductible to the tipping proposals, Indiana Rep. Jim Banks sees a through line: a focus on blue-collar voters. “President Trump understands the importance of working-class voters to our party,” Banks, a Trump ally and candidate for Senate, told RealClearPolitics. He said Republicans on Capitol Hill ought to follow the former president’s lead “and give middle-class families a tax break by making the TCJA’s individual rate cut permanent before the end of next year.”