Trump pivots, says GOP should 'probably not' raise taxes on rich

President Trump said Friday that GOP lawmakers should "probably not” raise taxes on the rich — but said he would be OK if it ultimately happened — as Republicans on Capitol Hill deliberate over the final details of the party’s bill full of Trump’s legislative priorities.

The suggestion came one day after reports surfaced that the president was making a fourth-quarter push to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans in the GOP’s megabill.

“The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, ’Read my lips,’ the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election. NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Three sources told The Hill on Thursday that the White House had put forward a proposal to allow the top marginal income tax rate cut that Trump signed into law in 2017 to expire at the end of the year for the highest-income Americans, which would increase the tax rate for those individuals from 37 percent to 39.6 percent. The rest of the 2017 tax cuts would be extended.

And while the top tax bracket for 2024 applied to incomes higher than $609,351 for single filers and $731,201 for joint filers, the White House is pitching a new higher rate that would apply to those with incomes greater than $2.5 million for single filers or $5 million for joint filers, according to one source with knowledge of the pitch.

One source told The Hill that Trump made the policy request as recently as Wednesday.

The White House’s idea for raising taxes on the rich comes as House Republican leaders are looking to craft a Trump agenda bill that appeases all corners of the ideologically diverse GOP conference.

On one end are hard-line conservatives pushing to make the package deficit-neutral, advocating for changes to Medicaid to achieve that goal. On the other end of the party are moderates concerned about changes to social safety net programs, and centrists from New York, New Jersey and California pushing for an increase to the state and local tax deduction cap, an expensive endeavor.

The comments from Trump on Friday jive with previous remarks he has made about raising taxes on the rich. Last month, the president told Time magazine, “I certainly don’t mind having a tax increase,” but aired some unease with the idea because of the political implications — similar to his argument Friday.

“I actually love the concept, but I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I’ve seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news,” he added at the time.

House GOP leaders, however, have shut down the idea. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News last month that he “would not expect that” when asked about increasing the top tax rate.

“We have been working against that idea. I’m not in favor of raising the tax rates because that’s — our party is the group that stands against that, traditionally,” he said in an interview.

If the provision does make it into the final Trump agenda bill, it would face fierce pushback from conservatives in Washington, who have pushed for decades to make refusing tax increases part of the party’s ethos.

Updated at 8:44 a.m. EDT