President Donald Trump offered some mixed messaging as Republicans put the final touches on their tax proposal, saying Friday that he would support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to help pay for his sweeping legislative agenda while adding in the same breath his belief that Republicans “should probably not do it.”
“The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, ‘Read my lips,’ the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election. NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.
President Donald Trump speaks at an event for Military Mothers, on May 8, 2025, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Trump’s position on raising taxes for the rich “very honorable” during Friday’s White House press briefing.
“The president himself has said he wouldn’t mind paying a little bit more to help the poor and the middle class and the working class in this country,” Leavitt said. “These negotiations are ongoing on Capitol Hill and the president will weigh in when he feels necessary.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, May 9, 2025, in Washington.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
The ambiguous presidential declaration has thrown negotiators into a frantic scramble — with the House Ways and Means committee expected to mark up their legislation next week.
The inclusion of a tax hike in the “big, beautiful bill” would be a major reversal for House GOP leaders, who have argued that allowing the current tax rates to expire would amount to a tax increase.
“I’m not in favor of raising the tax rates because that’s — our party is the group that stands against that, traditionally,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview on Fox News in late April.
During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in 1992, incumbent President George H.W. Bush uttered the infamous line, “read my lips: no new taxes.” Voters ultimately rejected Bush at the ballot box after he broke his vow and signed legislation crafted by congressional Democrats that increased tax revenues to address the growing budget deficit.
