NASHVILLE — President Trump delivered an economic victory lap during a speech to farmers on Monday in which he vastly overstated the size of the tax cuts passed by Congress late last year and played up a rollback of regulations on American businesses.
Declaring that the “American dream is roaring back to life,” Mr. Trump — who has made clear that he likes big numbers — claimed that the tax overhaul cut taxes by $5.5 trillion when, in fact, the legislation will reduce the overall tax burden on individuals and companies over the next decade by $1.5 trillion, or $4 trillion less than what he cited.
“We have just signed into law the most significant tax cuts and reforms in American history — it’s a total of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts,” Mr. Trump said, adding that most of those benefits would go to “working families, small businesses and — who? — the family farmers.”
Mr. Trump apparently chose to highlight just one side of the ledger — the total amount of tax reductions in the bill that he signed in December — without counting the amount of taxes that were increased in the same legislation to help pay for the bill. White House officials declined to respond to questions about the president’s $5.5 trillion figure.
The new law cut taxes on businesses and individuals but also eliminated many breaks that companies and families rely on to lower their tax burden, effectively raising taxes on some. For instance, while the tax bill cut the corporate rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, it also eliminated several business tax breaks, including one used by some farmers. The bill also scaled back many individual tax breaks, such as the state and local tax deduction and the mortgage interest deduction, to help keep the overall cost of the bill to $1.5 trillion.
The inaccurate boast was part of a speech in which the president sought to underscore the benefits that middle-class families would receive as part of the tax overhaul, which he described as “massive tax cuts” after “years of crushing taxes, crippling regulations and corrupt politics.” To applause from thousands of farmers in the audience, Mr. Trump said the tax cut would exempt most family farms from the estate tax.
“From now on, most family farms and small business owners will be spared — and it really is the word punishment — of the deeply unfair estate tax known as the death tax, so you can keep your farms in the family,” Mr. Trump said.
In reality, only about 80 small businesses and farms would fall under the estate-tax tent this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The new law, which exempts more estates from the tax, will primarily benefit the richest Americans.
