One of President-elect Donald Trump's longtime confidants is calling on him to inflict "pain" on the wealthiest Americans and corporations in the form of higher taxes during his second term in the White House.
In a wide-ranging Friday interview with Semafor reporter David Weigel, Steve Bannon — who was Trump's former chief White House strategist — indicated he wanted the incoming Republican trifecta to be "populist nationalists." Bannon defined populism as an "anti-elite" sentiment along with economic policies "that make the citizen the actual focus of the government," and suggested that partisan labels were quickly becoming outdated.
"I don’t think you look at Republicans and Democrats anymore. I think those labels are meaningless," Bannon said. "The Morning Joe mindset is no different, really, than what the Murdochs really think. The elites have had this concept of an empire that has destroyed the country."
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One particular economic policy Bannon championed is likely to fly in the face of one of the GOP's biggest goals — extending Trump's 2017 tax cut package that overwhelmingly benefited the richest Americans. Politico reported that an extension of the tax cuts would cost more than $4.6 trillion over a 10-year period. However, Bannon is hoping Trump and the GOP will take a different approach.
"Since 2008, $200 billion has gone into stock repurchases," Bannon said. "If that had gone into plants and equipment, think what that would have done for the country. I’m for a dramatic increase in corporate taxes. We have to increase taxes on the wealthy."
The "War Room" podcast host acknowledged that raising taxes on the wealthy wouldn't be popular among many members of the House and Senate Republican Conferences, saying there were "many mansions" in "Trump's house." But he expressed optimism that the "populist right" would fight and win in its goal of both raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and on making sweeping budget cuts to federal agencies.
"Where does the tax revenue come from? Corporations and the wealthy. And when they start squealing, we have a conversation," he said. "We’re all partners in this, everybody’s going to take a little pain, but the working people are going to take less pain than you guys."
Click here to read Bannon's full interview in Semafor.
