Donald Trump is under pressure from economists in his circle to embrace a flat tax rate, softer trade stance and to hold the line on the state and local tax deduction.
The minds behind these proposals include Steve Forbes, of Forbes Media, former White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and economists Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer.
The men, who aren't official advisers to his campaign, typically emphasize unleashing the supply potential of the economy with lower taxes, and to a degree that would have been unremarkable in the 1980s but which places them outside the economics mainstream today.
The efforts demonstrate how people around the former president are already lobbying for their preferred economic policies ahead of a potential second term where both taxes and tariffs will be top priorities.
Polls show voters trust Trump to handle the economy by a much higher margin than President Joe Biden.
Forbes said Monday at a New York City event that he is advocating for Trump to support a flat 17% tax rate for all income brackets with "generous" exemptions — an idea he's pushed for decades including when he ran for president in the late 1990s.
For a family of four, he said, he would suggest the first $54,000 of income be exempt from federal income tax.
Moore said that Trump hasn't yet said he supports a flat tax, which would appear to benefit the rich. Under the current system, tax rates increase as income levels rise, meaning higher-earners are supposed to pay a larger share of their income in taxes compared to those who make less.
Whoever wins the White House in November will be forced to negotiate a tax deal next year because key portions of Trump's 2017 tax cuts — including individual rates — expire at the end of 2025.
That will set up a complex negotiation — particularly if control of Washington is split between Republicans and Democrats — that could make dozens of changes to the Internal Revenue Service code.
Corporate Cuts
Kudlow has praised Trump's 2017 tax cut, which lowered the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%, was an "enormous success." Laffer said he supports lowering the corporate rate even further, though his ideal goal is to replace the corporate income tax with a value-added tax.
Trump has told allies he wants to keep the 21% rate in place, instead of cutting it further to 15% as he previously proposed, seeking to avoid alienating working-class voters.
Monday's event was organized by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a group that counts Forbes, Laffer, Kudlow and Moore among its founders and organizers, and is one of the entities regularly bringing policy ideas to Trump.
