Trump wanted to raise his income tax rate to 44%

President Donald Trump had to discount the personal income tax rate by 4 percentage points, which astonishes his senior economic adviser.

This revelation was one of many in Washington Post the new book by journalist Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump at the White House, which was released on Tuesday.

In his book, Woodward said former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn had discussed the tax reform legislation with the president and that Trump had suggested cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15%.

But Trump's suggestion to make up the difference seemed to shock Cohn.

Former economic adviser Gary Cohn (L) and US President Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting at the White House in March 2018. The new book by journalist Bob Woodward says that Cohn had to talk to Trump from the increase in the personal tax rate. REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque

"I will raise the highest rate to 44% if I can get the rate to 15%," said Trump.

"Sir, you can not raise the rate," Cohn reportedly replied. "You can not."

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"What do you mean?" Trump responded, according to the book. "You are a Republican," recalled Cohn, a registered Democrat, telling him that he "would be absolutely destroyed" if that happened.

In July 2017, Steve Bannon, former chief strategist of the White House, had raised the idea of ​​including a tax rate of 44% for the 44,000 Americans earning more than $ 5 million. per year. a year, reported The Intercept.

Woodward's book, as reported by Business Insider, also said that Cohn was shocked that Trump does not seem to understand how the US federal debt function. The book presented a conversation in November 2016 on how the Federal Reserve would likely raise interest rates.

Trump said, "We should just borrow a lot of money, keep it and then sell it to make money.

Cohn explained that it would increase the deficit and actually increase the debt, and was "stunned by Trump's lack of basic understanding" about what government borrowing meant.

"It was clear that Trump did not understand how the US government's debt cycle works," wrote Woodward.

Cohn was the last character to come out of Woodward's book to denigrate Trump's intelligence. According to the book, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told his associates that Trump "included a fifth or sixth student."

Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said the president lacked knowledge of the Constitution and the rule of law. understand what a child wants. "

The Trump administration dismissed Woodward's book as "nothing more than fabricated stories.

"It's just another bad book, it has had a lot of credibility problems," said Trump.