Former President Trump said he supports lowering the corporate tax rate only for companies that manufacture products in the United States.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York September 5, Trump proposed a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent in order to spur domestic manufacturing.
“My message is simple: Make your product here in America and only in America,” Trump said, adding that companies domiciled in the United States that outsource their production overseas would face stiff tariffs.
Trump didn’t elaborate on how such a proposal would work and whether he would still pursue a slightly lower corporate tax rate for all companies based in the United States.
The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
While Trump and his Democratic presidential opponent, Kamala Harris, have shown signs of some tax policy overlap in the past few weeks, their position on corporate taxation is another matter.
Harris has proposed increasing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and opposes Trump’s call for a blanket tariff on imports, saying it’s effectively a “national sales tax.”
In his speech, Trump criticized Harris’s plan to tax unrealized capital gains on high-net-worth individuals, saying it could lead to a domino effect on the economy if investors begin pulling capital out of ventures.
“If you happen to have a lot of wealth but no cash, you’re in a lot of trouble,” Trump said.
Trump also inaccurately claimed Harris hasn’t disclosed how much she intends to increase capital gains taxes.
“They don’t want to give a number,” Trump said, which came a day after Harris unveiled a plan to raise the total top capital gains rate to 33 percent.
Trump called for regulatory reform, pledging to eliminate 10 regulations for every new regulation put into law.
Trump appeared to allude to his contention that presidents have the authority to impound unspent appropriated funds when he vowed to rescind money allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act.
“To further defeat inflation, my plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam . . . and rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act,” Trump said.
Constitutional observers have said Trump’s assertion that he could withhold funds is unconstitutional and that either current law would have to be overturned by the Supreme Court or a new law would have to be enacted by a hypothetically friendly Congress.
Trump and Harris are scheduled to debate in Philadelphia September 10, with the vice president currently leading the Republican presidential nominee by 1.8 percent, according to a national average of polls by RealClearPolitics released September 5.