The following article by Grace Guarnieri was posted on the Newsweek website December 24, 2017:
President Donald Trump joined his family at their “Winter White House” for the holidays Friday night after signing the GOP tax bill into law, and reportedly told wealthy friends dining at Mar-a-Lago, “You all just got a lot richer.”
Days before heading away for the holidays, Trump told White House reporters that the tax bill would be “one of the great Christmas gifts to middle-income people.” However, Mar-a-Lago’s exclusive dinner guests would have paid a $200,000 initiation fee and $14,000 in annual dues to Trump’s golf club and resort.
Trump made the comment to friends eating dinner at a nearby table, two of whom spoke of the encounter with CBS News.
“It’s going to be a tremendous thing for the American people. It’s going to be fantastic for the economy,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office signing on Friday. “It’s going to keep companies from leaving our shores and opening up in other countries.”
When Trump signed $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law, ultra-wealthy earners in the 95th to 99th percentile received the biggest tax cuts, even though the top 1 percent already holds about 40 percent of American wealth. Instead of the 35 percent tax cut that he promised middle class voters, their taxes decreased by just 10 percent.
According to a report by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, every income group received a tax cut from the Republican tax reform, but most individual tax cuts will sunset by 2025. A whopping 53 percent of Americans will be paying more in taxes by 2027.
During his presidential campaign in 2016 Trump told his millions of Twitter followers, “We’re going to cut taxes BIG LEAGUE for the middle class,” and added that Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton wanted to raise taxes for the middles class.
“I consider this very much a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs. And jobs are produced through companies and corporations, and you see that happening. Corporations are literally going wild over this,” Trump told White House reporters on Friday.