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On August 21, 2019, President Donald Trump addresses the media as he leaves the White House in Washington, DC
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that his government would not reduce taxes to avoid an economic slowdown – just one day after announcing that he would consider changing his tax policy.
This follows several days of conflicting messages from the White House as to whether this would respond to growing concerns about a potential recession. Trump spent the week arguing that the United States enjoyed the world's strongest economy, while urging the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, a measure typically taken in a downturn.
A White House official on Monday denied a report that the administration would consider reducing payroll taxes. On Tuesday, Trump said that he "was thinking of" reducing levies, although he stressed that "whether we do something now or not, it will not be done because of a recession." ".
But the president stepped back Wednesday, overwhelming discussions on reducing payroll taxes or indexing capital gains on inflation. Trump's comments continue the fight of the president and his administration to clarify if and how that would change US tax policy in the face of fears of recession.
"I'm not thinking about tax cuts now, we do not need them, we have a strong economy," the president told reporters on the White House lawn when he he was asked if he was considering reducing payroll taxes.
Only Tuesday, Trump said that he "thought about" indexing capital gains on inflation – an initiative generally meant to reduce the tax burden of the rich. But he added that he "was not talking about doing anything right now".
On Wednesday, he criticized the proposal saying "it's not something I like".
"It's probably better for high-income people, and I'm not trying to do it – I want to do it for the workers," said the president.
The comments Wednesday show a president anxious to maintain the strength of the US economy, while being ready to blame for any potential slowdown on others. He hammered Fed Chairman Jerome Powell several times on Wednesday for raising interest rates in 2017 and 2018, comparing him to a golfer who "does not know putter".
He also argued that the media "were trying to convince the public of the recession".
Trump lamented that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, oversaw the economy while the Fed had set interest rates close to zero – an emergency response when the crisis came out after the financial crisis of 2008.
"Even so, my economy is much stronger," he said.
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