Fact Check: Biden Misleads with Claim Trump Tax Cut ‘Rewarded the Wealthy’

CLAIM: President Joe Biden claimed former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut “rewarded the wealthy.”

VERDICT: MOSTLY FALSE. The Trump tax cut primarily benefited the middle class, and raised taxes on some wealthy people.

Biden trotted out an old and discredited attack line against Trump during the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election on CNN on Thursday night, claiming that Trump’s tax cut in 2017 “rewarded the wealthy.”
As Breitbart News has noted before:

Eighty-two percent of American middle-class households received a tax cut and received an average tax cut of $1,260. In Ohio, where CNN is hosting the debate, the average Ohioan received $1,476. Ninety percent of Americans saw an increase in take-home pay.

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The Trump tax cuts also doubled the child tax credit and expanded its eligibility, which greatly helps the American working-class family.

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Further, the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also repealed the Obamacare individual mandate, which serves as a giant middle-class tax cut. Eighty percent of those who paid the Obamacare individual mandate fine made less than $50,000, making the mandate’s repeal a significant tax cut.

It is true that some wealthy people benefited from the 2017 cut. But others saw their taxes rise: wealthy homeowners living in high-tax states (run by Democrats) faced a new $10,000 cap on the State And Local Tax (SALT) deduction.

The idea that Trump and the Republicans only stand for the rich and for the corporations is an old attack line. But it is simply not true with regard to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which primarily benefited middle-class Americans.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.