Donald Trump gave a scripted speech punctuated by over a dozen protesters, but stayed on message and proposed a tax plan with the same tax brackets proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Trump’s speech stressed the need to cut corporate tax rates and to make all childcare expenses tax-free. He also proposed the removal of the estate tax—known by Republicans as the “death tax”—and for a reduction of the number of tax brackets from seven to three, matching the proposal from Ryan.
The three tax brackets include 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent. He also made a bold promise: “For many American workers, their tax rate will be zero.”
Recently, Trump had proposed tax brackets of 0 percent, 10 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent.
On Aug. 3, Trump said he was not ready to endorse Ryan yet in an apparent snub, after Ryan had said the same of Trump in May, only to reverse the decision two days later. He endorsed the Speaker of the House at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Ryan is expected to win his primary election against challenger and Trump fan, Paul Nehlen.
Throughout the speech, Trump portrayed himself as a “change-maker” in contrast to Hillary Clinton’s 30 years in politics.
“She’s the candidate of the past; ours is the campaign of the future,” Trump said criticizing President Bill Clinton for signing NAFTA, which was initiated by former President George H.W. Bush. “Unless we change policies, we will never change results.”
In addition to NAFTA, he attacked Hillary Clinton, saying a vote for her is “a vote for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).” The TPP is a trade deal Clinton helped to write, and she had previously described it the “gold standard” of trade deals—until the primary season when she disavowed it.
He also focused less on the campaign’s main theme “Make America Great Again,” and more on another theme from the Republican National Convention: “Make America Grow Again.”
“These reforms will offer the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan Tax Reform, which unleashed years of continued economic growth and job creation,” Trump said. “We will Make America Grow Again.”
Trump also focused on reducing regulations, boosting domestic energy production and reducing business income taxes to 15 percent. He promised to “remove bureaucrats who only know how to kill jobs; replace them with experts who know how to create jobs.”
He also critiqued a common number cited by Democrats—unemployment is down to 5 percent—saying that the number has been manipulated and is a hoax.
Trump was interrupted 14 times by protesters that Trump took in stride, commenting after a number of interruptions that “the Bernie Sanders people had far more energy and spirit,” as the protesters were lead out of the room by security.
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