In-Town Pool Note #6: Oval Quotes

The president answered questions about tariffs, SALT, raising tax rates on the wealthy, and New York Mayor Eric Adams. Check quotes against transcript (you know the drill).

Asked about a baseline 10% tariff, POTUS told your pooler:

“You are going to always have a baseline. I mean, there could be an exception, at some point, we'll see somebody does something exceptional for us. It's always possible. But basically, you have a baseline of a minimum of 10%, and some of them will be much higher--40% 50% 60%--as they've been doing to us over the years.

“We had a wonderful deal yesterday. We have four or five other deals coming immediately. We have many deals coming down the line, and ultimately we’re just signing the rest of them in.”

“But we always have a baseline of 10 years," Trump concluded.

Asked about the possibility of raising tax rates on the wealthy, Trump told your pooler, “I would love to do it frankly.”

“You're giving up something up-top in order to make people in the middle income, and the lower income brackets, save more. So it's really a redistribution, and I'm willing to do it if they want,” he said, seeming to motion to the members of Congress present.

“I would love to be able to give people in a lower bracket a big break by giving up some of what I have,” he said of himself and other wealthy taxpayers.

He noted, however, that some are cautioning against raising rates because of political liability, citing specifically President George H.W. Bush’s ‘Read My Lips’ vow.

“But I don't think they're going to be doing it,” he continued. “But I actually think it's good politics to do it, where richer people give up--and it's a very small, it's like a point-- but they give it up to benefit people that are lower income.”

Asked about SALT deductions, POTUS told your pooler, that “it is a very complex issue” but that it was “being worked out” on Capitol Hill. He predicted that “they’ll settle it up pretty quick.”

As the pool was being ushered out of the Oval Office, POTUS said of NYC Mayor Eric Adams, “he just came in to say hello.” When asked what they discussed, Trump replied, “almost nothing.” The mayor came to visit, he said, "I think he came in to thank me frankly...that would be, I would say, the primary reason."

Philip Wegmann

White House Reporter

RealClearPolitics

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