Gary Cohn talked Donald Trump out of raising the top personal income tax rate to 44 percent, according to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s new book.
Cohn, who was the head of the National Economic Council, told the president that he could not raise the top rate as part of his tax reform package, Woodward reports.
At a cabinet meeting, Trump said he was open to raising the top rate in exchange for further cuts bringing down the corporate rate.
“Sir, you can’t take the top rate up,” Cohn said, according to Woodward. “You just can’t.”
Cohn’s reasoning was that Trump would get “absolutely destroyed” if he raised the income tax rate.
“You’re a Republican,” Cohn said. Cohn is a registered Democrat who was second in command of Goldman Sachs before joining the Trump administration.
The idea of trading a higher top rate for deeper cuts in corporate taxes had been circulated inside the White House by chief strategist Steve Bannon. Bannon reasoned that taxpayers earning more than $5 million would benefit so much from a lower corporate rate that they would easily be able to pay more in income taxes.
Cohn has said the book does not reflect his experience in the White House, although he has not specifically denied talking Trump out of raising taxes on top earners.
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