Former US President Donald Trump has pledged to revamp the country’s income tax system while advocating for aggressive tariffs against nations he accuses of undermining America’s economy.
Speaking at a Florida retreat for House Republicans on Monday, Trump singled out India and China as examples of countries imposing high tariffs, vowing to retaliate against those he claims harm the United States.
“We’re going to put tariffs on outside countries and outside people that really mean harm to us,” Trump stated, emphasizing his “America First” economic policy.
Trump criticized nations like China, India, and Brazil for what he described as unfair advantages at the expense of American workers. “Look at what others do. China is a tremendous tariff maker, and India and Brazil and so many other countries,” Trump said, according to a news agency.
He presented a vision of a new economic framework that shifts the tax burden away from American citizens and businesses, instead targeting foreign nations. “Under the America First model, as tariffs on other countries go up, taxes on American workers and businesses will come down,” he said.
Trump’s tax proposals largely favor corporations and high-income earners, including a plan to lower the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 15%, a reduction he highlighted during his speech. He also aims to roll back President Joe Biden’s income tax increases for wealthy Americans and eliminate taxes from the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds clean energy initiatives.
Nevertheless, Trump also proposed measures to benefit middle- and working-class Americans, such as exempting earned tips, Social Security wages, and overtime wages from income taxes.
In addition to tax reforms, Trump urged American businesses to relocate manufacturing operations to the US to avoid tariffs. He called this an “incentive” to establish factories domestically, especially in industries like pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and steel.
“If you want to stop paying the taxes or the tariffs, you have to build your plant right here in America. That’s what’s going to happen at record levels,” he said.
Trump also proposed imposing tariffs on key military materials like steel, aluminum, and copper, lamenting the decline in domestic production. “There was a time when we made one ship a day, and now we can’t build a ship. It’s all gone to other locations,” he said.
Additionally, Trump pledged to boost the production of rare earth minerals in the US, criticizing environmental regulations that restrict access. “We have some of the best rare earth anywhere in the world, but we’re not allowed to use it because the environmentalists got there first,” he remarked, suggesting a rollback of environmental restrictions to enhance domestic output.
