Tag: campaign promises

The IRS Isn’t Going Away, and This Is How We Know

As the 2024 campaign neared its send, candidate Donald Trump began promising that, if elected, he would support the elimination of income taxes. Shortly after he was sworn in, Trump then began saying he planned to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. The Trump team claimed in each case that it could raise enough tax revenue from tariffs to replace tax revenue from income taxes.

By March, however, Trump began backtracking, and his administration announced that the new goal was to eliminate income taxes for people making under $150,000 per year.

That last development on its own tells us that the IRS isn’t going away. If people making more than $150,000 are still going to pay income tax, then there will still be an IRS to which we’ll need to send tax returns to prove we’re not making more than $150,000.Raico, Ralph

But even if we ignore that problem, there are at least two other reasons why we can be sure the IRS isn’t going anywhere. The first way we know this is from the fact that the Trump administration is only talking about “abolishing” the progressive individual income tax. Administration mouthpieces have said nothing at all about getting rid of the income taxes known as “payroll taxes” that every wage earner pays.

The second way we know that the IRS isn’t going away is that taxes on imports—i.e., tariffs—simply aren’t going to bring in enough revenue to keep funding all the popular spending programs that Trump clearly has no interest in cutting.

Keep reading

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick: Trump Wants No Taxes for Americans Earning Under $150,000 Annually

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed that President Donald Trump aims to abolish federal taxes for all Americans earning under $150,000 annually.

Lutnick made the revelation during an interview with CBS News on Tuesday.

“I know what his goal is: No tax for anybody who makes less than $150,000 a year. That’s his goal. That’s what I’m working for,” Lutnick told CBS, underscoring a vision that would put thousands of dollars back into the pockets of American families.

Lutnick elaborated further in a separate interview with Fox News, detailing how Trump intends to finance this massive tax relief plan while balancing the budget.

According to Lutnick, the Trump administration is focused on driving revenue through tariffs, closing offshore tax scams, and slashing excessive spending, instead of squeezing the middle class for every last penny.

Keep reading

Trump Vows To Deliver ‘No Tax On Tips’ Campaign Promise

President Donald Trump has stressed a “no tax on tips” policy during his Las Vegas visit. 

On Saturday, Trump spoke at the Circa Resort and Casino and discussed his agenda for American workers, stressing a “no tax on tips” policy. 

“Any worker who relies on tips [as] income, your tips will be 100% yours,” Trump said.

Trump went on to address Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo (R-Nev.) . 

“You think that had an impact on the election?” Trump asked. “What, a half a point? It’s pretty big….nationwide over four million workers depend on tip income, including an estimated 700,000 single moms.”

“And here in Nevada…think of it, a quarter of the typical restaurant workers’ pay comes from tips. I didn’t know that,” Trump continued. “Impacted workers are some of the very citizens who were hit hard and very hard by the ravages of the Biden economy, which was inflation.”

“When I think of Biden, I think of incompetence and inflation,” Trump said

Given that Nevada tends to vote blue, Trump earlier this week said that he would travel there to “thank” people for choosing him in the November election.

Keep reading

President Donald Trump Pardons Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht

President Donald Trump, fulfilling a promise made at the Libertarian Party’s National Convention in May, pardoned Ross Ulbricht today. Ulbricht had been serving a life sentence for his role in founding and operating the dark web marketplace Silk Road.

As Trump put it in a Truth Social post: “in honor of [his mother Lyn Ulbricht], and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross.” He said “the scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern-day weaponization of government against me.”

As I reported on his sentencing in May 2015 (he has been in prison since his October 2013 arrest):

Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison with no parole…by Judge Katherine Forrest in U.S. District Court for the southern district of New York. Ulbricht was convicted back in February on seven charges, all related to the operation of the darkwebsite called Silk Road, which used Tor-enabled anonymity and the cryptocurrency bitcoin to allow people to buy and sell often illegal items in safety and security, with the site providing an escrow service between buyer and seller to ensure both were satisfied.

Ulbricht was a clever entrepreneur, enthralled by libertarian ideas derived from the likes of Murray Rothbard and Samuel Konkin about the richness and justice of truly free markets not hobbled by government threats.

The charges were: “narcotics trafficking; distribution of narcotics by means of the Internet; narcotics trafficking conspiracy; continuing criminal enterprise; conspiracy to aid and abet computer hacking; conspiracy to traffic in fraudulent identity documents; and money laundering conspiracy.”

None of the charges were related to either personally selling an illegal substance to anyone—Ulbricht merely ran a website that facilitated it—and none were related to causing direct harm to anyone’s life or property.

Given the amazing water-muddying the prosecution achieved by talking about, but never trying Ulbricht for or proving in court beyond a reasonable doubt, allegedly planned, but never executed, murders for hire, one wonders whether the judge allowed any thoughts of those rumors, even subconsciously, to shape her sentencing decision.

Silk Road’s innovative mail order using bitcoin, combined with user reviews of sellers, imposed some real market discipline on dealers, kept buyers from the occasional dangers of physically obtaining drugs, and allowed people not violating others’ lives and property to buy and sell drugs with less (but not zero) legal risk.

Keep reading

Trump failed to deliver ‘Day 1’ promise to grant clemency to Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road

President Trump did not pardon or commute the prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the anonymous marketplace website Silk Road, despite his promise on the campaign trail to free him on “day one.”

Ulbricht was convicted because his website, which was founded in 2011 and used cryptocurrency for payments, was used to sell illegal drugs, even though he did not sell any of the illicit substances himself.

After being sworn into office on Monday, Trump issued several executive actions, including efforts to reduce immigration, designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move to resume federal executions and pardoning or commuting sentences to time served of people convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

But Trump’s first day back in the White House came to an end with Ulbricht still behind bars without a pardon or commutation from the president, who pledged to do so last spring.

Keep reading

Biden Dodges Question About Releasing Marijuana Prisoners Before Leaving Office, As He Previously Promised He Would Do

President Joe Biden declined to respond to a question over the weekend about whether he plans to fulfill his campaign promise to release people still imprisoned for marijuana before his term ends later this month.

Following a ceremony where Biden awarded various figures with Presidential Medals of Freedom recognizing their contributions to national interests on Saturday, New York Post reporter Steven Nelson called out to the president, asking “will you honor your campaign pledge to release all marijuana inmates?”

Biden didn’t acknowledge the question, exiting the event without talking to attending press.

With just two weeks until President-elect Donald Trump assumes the office again following his November election victory, there’s been added pressure on Biden to make good on his promise and take executive action to ensure nobody is incarcerated over non-violent federal cannabis convictions.

But while the White House has indicated that there are still clemency options being considered, there’s been no additional confirmation that Biden plans to go beyond the pardons and commutations he’s already issued for simple marijuana possession offenses.

Keep reading

Trump Reportedly Plans To Continue Aid To Ukraine But Will Raise NATO Spending To 5%

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to continue sending military aid to Ukraine, despite Trump earlier on the campaign trail mocking Zelensky for being the “greatest salesman on earth” for his getting tens of billions of US taxpayers’ money with ease.

A new Financial Times report has cited European officials who say Trump’s team told them he plans to continue military aid to Kiev after his inauguration. He’s reportedly trying to calm fears of an immediate US withdrawal of support, and this is connected to an expected Trump policy for NATO member states to increase defense spending to 5% of their GDP.

“Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine,” FT writes.

NATO’s existing target of 2% of GPD for defense spending certainly has not been met by all members… not even close. The 2% is being met by only 23 of the alliance’s 32 members, and so a significantly higher bar set of more than double that is certainly going to rile Europe.

European NATO leaders have long been trying to figure out how to ‘Trump proof’ future defense aid for Ukraine, as has the Biden administration.

But there’s at least one severe critic – Hungary’s Viktor Orban. He estimated in a radio interview on Friday that the US and the EU have pumped over $300 billion in financial aid and military assistance into Kiev’s coffers since the war’s start.

“During the negotiation with the Americans, I received the figure that Europe and America together have spent €310 billion so far. Those are huge numbers!” the Hungarian prime minister declared.

He went to describe that such a massive amount “could have done wonders” for European people themselves, instead of sinking the funds into an unwinnable war, while avoiding the necessity of negotiations with Moscow.

Keep reading

President Trump Doubles Down On Pledge To End Birthright Citizenship, A Policy Backed By The Overwhelming Majority Of American People

America, since its inception, has been a place of opportunity for aspiring, high-skilled people.

The geniuses and artisans of Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries flooded to these shores, enriching the society in many cases and making invaluable contributions to American culture – from our culinary traditions to newfound architectural styles – that continue to be influential through the present day.

This custom of selecting only the best and brightest is not anomalous to great nations throughout history.

All nations are only as good as the people which compose them: thus, any worthwhile nation would desire to enhance the quality of its people overall in order to elevate its global standing.

That operative goal, however, cannot be achieved under the present, suicidal policy of citizenship by birthright.

Among nations of the world, America is the only developed one that confers citizenship onto anyone simply for having been born to a parent who managed to inhabit these borders, regardless of legality.

That America is the only noteworthy country to still have this policy in place should be enough evidence alone of its insanity. The prevailing view among liberal legal scholars is that the Fourteenth Amendment sanctions this policy, which is permanent and cannot be altered.

This is flatly wrong. This erroneous interpretation is the byproduct of a slipshod and lazy construction of that particular Amendment, through the prism of erroneous interpretations of largely discredited, or at least, increasingly obsolete legal precedent.

Keep reading

Trump vows to pardon Jan. 6 rioters on day one after getting into office

President-elect Donald Trump said that he will pardon Jan. 6 rioters on the first day in office in his upcoming administration. 

In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump told anchor Kristen Welker that “These people are living in hell.”

Over 1,500 people have been charged with crimes connected to the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot in 2021, according to NPR.

Trump has said in the past that he would pardon many of them. 

“I am inclined to pardon many of them,” he said during a 2023 CNN event. “I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, got out of control. I would say it will be a large portion of them and it would be early on.”

Keep reading

Trump Gives Stark Answer When Asked If He’ll Split Up Families During Mass Deportations

During a sit down interview with NBC News, president Trump gave a striking answer when asked if he intends to separate families through mass deportations of illegal aliens.

“Well, I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way that you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” Trump declared.

“We don’t have to separate families, we’ll send the whole family very humanely, back to the country where they came,” Trump emphasised.

“If they come here illegally but their family is here legally, then the family has a choice. The person that came in illegally can go out, or they can all go out together,” he added.

Keep reading