Ledger · Before politics · № 2
The 14.25% wealth tax Trump said would wipe out the national debt
Never delivered“[paraphrase] A one-time 14.25 percent tax on the net worth of Americans worth more than $10 million would raise $5.7 trillion and pay off the entire national debt.”
- Promised
- , Reform Party presidential campaign proposal / Trump's policy rollout
- Topic
- Taxes & deficit
- Era
- Before politics
What happened
The arithmetic did not work: Trump's estimate of $50 trillion in total American wealth and the share held by the top 1 percent were both badly wrong, by trillions of dollars. Trump abandoned the campaign in February 2000 and never proposed a wealth tax again. As president he did the opposite, signing the 2017 tax law that cut rates on high earners and estates, and the national debt rose sharply on his watch.