Fox & Friends host covers up Trump tax plan’s giveaway to the super rich

Written by Julie Alderman

Published

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt denied claims that under President Donald Trump’s tax proposal, “taxes are going to go up for the poorest people and down for the richest people,” despite analyses of the plan showing the top 1 percent of income earners receiving by far the most benefits from the proposal. The New York Times explained that Trump’s tax plan includes “a potentially huge windfall for the wealthiest Americans” and that it would “eliminat[e] the estate tax, which affects just a few thousand uber-wealthy families each year, and the alternative minimum tax, a safety net designed to prevent tax avoidance.” The Economic Policy Institute showed that by 2027, the tax plan “would deliver 80 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent” and an average tax cut of $207,060. At the same time, according to the Times report, Trump’s “plan would not benefit lower-income households that do not pay federal income taxes”; it would, according to Axios, increase the lowest individual tax rate from 10 percent to 12 percent.

Trump’s tax plan also includes a provision to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to about 15 or 20 percent. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote, few of those benefits would go to workers.

From the October 16 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): If [Jimmy Kimmel is] listening to [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [(D-NY)], and that's what the reports are saying, that they’re good friends and he’s just saying his talking points. But Chuck Schumer was the one -- we aired that soundbite last week -- who said, with the tax reform deal, that taxes are going to go up for the poorest people and down for the richest people. Well, if you read the tax plan, that's not at all what it says.