Johnson pushes back on Trump’s top tax rate

For the first time since taking office, Donald Trump appears to be facing some pushback from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

While Trump has seemed receptive to raising the top tax rate, Johnson is pushing back, stating that he is not a “big fan” of the idea.

"We have the big, beautiful bill"

Donald Trump wants Congress to pass one massive spending bill, which many GOP members of Congress ran against. This is also something I have spoken against many times because far too much gets lost in the shuffle in these massive spending bills.

Having said that, I completely understand why Trump wants to do it this way.

If they can have a big bill, they can use reconciliation to force the bill through. This would enable the administration to ram through partisan legislation if they can justify it as part of the spending legislation.

To that point, Trump stated, “We have the big, beautiful bill. We gotta get that done, and that will put our country in a position like it’s never been in. It’s a reduction of taxes. It’s tremendous incentives for companies to come from all over the world to come into our country.”

Open to raising taxes

Trump is generally about cutting taxes across the board, but he appears to be pivoting against the highest earners in the country.

According to reports, in a private meeting last week, Trump told Senators that he was open to discussing a higher tax rate at the top of the scale.

There is also the belief that this would be a way for Trump to kill one of the top attacks against him by Democrats, that being that he is always looking for ways to make rich buddies richer.

When Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) was asked about a possible tax hike, he responded, “Republicans are committed to making sure we prevent a $4 trillion tax increase. That’s our focus.”

Not a fan

For that tax hike to happen, Trump would need Johnson and the House to be on board, but that sounds like it could be a problem.

When Johnson was asked about the idea of raising the top tax bracket, he responded, "We're the Republican Party, and we're for tax reduction for everyone, and that's a general principle that we always try to abide by.”

He continued, "I would say just stay tuned. The next five to six weeks are going to be critical as all these negotiations happen in the committees of jurisdiction. You'll hear lots of rumors and lots of talk, but we'll see where it all lands."

Trump did reduce the tax rate during his first term, and we all saw the attacks that took place against him. If he raises that tax rate, it would be really interesting to see how the biggest donors in the party reacted, as I have a feeling that will ultimately decide what Trump does here.