President Donald Trump will turn his signature populist rhetoric toward tax reform today in a speech expected to tout tax cuts as a way to help workers and the middle class in an economy "rigged" against them, senior White House officials said.
With his domestic policy agenda stalled amid Republican infighting and his approval rating at just 35%, Trump will make his first presidential speech specifically on tax policy, an issue on he has been promising results for months.
"How" to reform it is the difficult part of fixing a 70,000-page set of laws and regulations that have not been overhauled since 1986
Reiterating a 2016 campaign theme on a visit to Springfield, Missouri, Trump will say the US economy is "rigged" to favor the privileged few and urge closing loopholes for the wealthy and special interests to help "Main Street."
The officials, who asked not to be identified during a conference call with reporters, said those ideas would make for a "bipartisan" message, because the notion of a rigged economy cuts across the spectrum of US political ideology.
The officials said the speech would be about "why" reforming the tax code was needed, not about "how" to reform it, which is the difficult part of fixing a 70,000-page set of laws and regulations that have not been overhauled since 1986.
Trump owes his November election victory partly to his ability to get working-class Americans to support a range of business policy positions, including his call for slashing the US corporate tax rate to 15% from 35%.
Tax reform was a major campaign promise for Trump and his Republican allies in Congress last year. But the effort has been hamstrung by repeated delays and political distractions since Trump took office in January.
The speech is unlikely to provide new details about a tax plan Trump's aides and Republican leaders in Congress are trying to hammer out in closed-door meetings in Washington.
The White House said the speech would kick off a series of Trump appearances on tax reform. No details were provided.