NPR.org – Donald Trump is coming off a week of disastrous headlines and cratering poll numbers. His major economic speech on Monday at the Detroit Economic Club, a vision described by his campaign as “Winning the Global Competition,” was a chance to turn the page.
During an address of just over an hour — which was interrupted multiple times by protesters — the GOP presidential nominee unveiled a new iteration of his proposal to reshape America’s tax system. It has just three tax brackets (one fewer than the tax plan he released in September, which was removed from his website in the past 24 hours), would limit taxes on all forms of business income to 15 percent, would end the estate tax and would “exclude childcare expenses from taxation.”
Other highlights include a proposed moratorium on all new federal regulations and would “remove bureaucrats who only know how to kill jobs [and] replace them with experts who know how to create jobs,” according to a preview released by his campaign. It’s unclear exactly what that means or how it would work, but there are currently about 2.7 million civilian federal employees.
As for trade, which has been a centerpiece of his economic agenda, Trump reiterated calls for the U.S. to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal and for NAFTA to be renegotiated. He said would appoint trade negotiators whose goal will be to “win for America,” and he would apply tariffs on countries that cheat. Economists have raised concerns in the past that such tariffs could lead to a trade war that would ultimately hurt American interests. Find out what was true or false in his speech at NPR.org.
