There’s a narrative being pushed about Trump being willing to accept donations for his presidential campaign from big business interests. Within the interview (today) below you can hear his own words about that. Additionally Donald Trump speaks about taxes, hedge fund managers, and more.
I’ll expand some thoughts after the article and video:
(VIA CBS) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he would change the tax laws to force people who work at hedge funds to pay more in taxes, because “the hedge fund guys are getting away with murder.”
In an interview with Time Magazine published last week, Trump said he might want to “switch taxes around” because “I have hedge fund guys that are making a lot of money that aren’t paying anything.” He confirmed on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that he would change the tax system to force those who work for hedge funds to pay more.
“They’re paying nothing and it’s ridiculous. I want to save the middle class,” Trump said. “The hedge fund guys didn’t build this country. These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky.”
Hedge fund managers often pay the capital gains tax rate rather than income tax. The top rate on capital gains is 20 percent, which is significantly less than the top tax bracket on regular income, which is 39.6 percent.
Trump indicated that he would carry out this plan regardless of his relationship with hedge fund managers.
“Some of them are friends of mine, some of them I couldn’t care less about. It’s the wrong thing,” he said. He added that he wants to lower rates for the middle class.
Trump also suggested he is shifting on the idea of whether campaign donations are a good idea. The billionaire has pledged to self-finance his campaign and said that fellow candidates Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton will be controlled by their high-dollar donors.
“I don’t want lobbyists, I don’t want special interests, but certainly people — we have a lot of money coming in,” Trump said. “I would even take big contributors as long as they don’t expect anything because the only people that can expect something from me is going to be the people that want to see our country be great again.”
“I actually like the idea of investing in a campaign, but it has to be no strings attached,. I don’t want any strings attached,” Trump said. He said he turned down a $5 million dollar donation from a lobbyist last week because he believed the lobbyist would come back in a year or two seeking something for one of his clients.
Trump also elaborated on the immigration plan he released last week. He brushed off criticism that his plan to deport all undocumented immigrants is very expensive, and reiterated that, “the good people are going to be expedited to come back.” (read more)
Mr. Trump is a very strategic thinker, he knows the inside baseball aspects to how money rolls amid a very specific group of Wall Street financiers. Trump also knows their interests, and money, is currently invested in Jeb Bush’s campaign for all of the reasons we have previously outlined.
Trump also understands the source of their power, money, is also their greatest weakness. If Trump has shown visible acumen in any strategic behavior it’s knowing how to turn an opponent’s strength into their weakness. His presser in New Hampshire was clear and convincing evidence of that.
It is also brutally obvious that Mr. Trump knows his competition within this primary is only Jeb Bush, everything else might sell media column inches – but it is pure nonsense.
Jeb is the RNC/GOPe guy who is supported by Wall Street, and all other funded candidates are merely tools to safeguard their 5-year selfish finance strategies and get Jeb into power.
Every Wall Street firm has a five year proactive strategy which they refine, but do not change, based on current events.
Trump knows, smartly knows, a key way to defeat Jeb Bush is to undermine the intensity of support felt within those behind Jeb’s curtain. If the men behind the Jeb Bush curtain pull back, Jeb collapses post haste.
How can Trump remove that support?…
….we are watching that strategy play out right now. Enjoy it!
No-one wants to be on the losing side of any deal. No-one !