WASHINGTON — Donald Trump failed to deliver on his promise to end taxes on Social Security benefits, overtime and tip income, and so now has turned to an alternative that has often worked for him in the past: lying about it.
Ever since his massive tax and spending bill cleared the Senate last weekend, Trump has been claiming that it fulfills campaign pledges that helped him return to the presidency, even though the 330-page measure only provides temporary help that only partially accomplishes what he promised.
What’s more, the recipients of those tax breaks, along with every other American household, could soon end up paying far more because of the massive import taxes Trump says will take effect next month.
“It’s about $750 in tax cuts and $2,000 in tariff increases,” said Jason Furman, a top economist in Barack Obama’s White House, about the effects on the typical household.
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White House aides did not respond to HuffPost queries about why Trump was lying about the new law and why he did not push to make those provisions that help middle-class Americans permanent, as he did the tax rate changes that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest.
Trump himself, meanwhile, has been claiming, falsely and unequivocally, that he has made good on his oft-repeated promises in 2024 as he ran to regain the office he had lost in 2020 after bungling the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime,” he told Fox News on June 29.
In Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting photo opportunity, he again claimed that he and congressional Republicans had delivered “no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime.”
And on Wednesday, in an email to his small-dollar donors, Trump wrote: “I just signed into LAW something I’m very proud of: NO TAXES ON SOCIAL SECURITY!”
In reality, Trump and Republicans created a limited tax deduction for a maximum of $12,500 in overtime pay and $25,000 in tip income, and only for federal income tax. Workers will still have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on all overtime pay and tips.
The situation is similar for senior citizens whom Trump promised, repeatedly, that he would stop taxing Social Security payments. Instead, they will receive a new tax deduction amounting to about $600 for the typical recipient not already exempt from paying that tax because their total income was too low.
And all three tax breaks will expire in 2028 – the year Trump leaves office, assuming he chooses to honor the constitutional limit of two presidential terms.
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Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are also claiming they have successfully delivered on Trump’s promises while bragging more broadly about making permanent the 2017 tax cuts that otherwise would have expired.
Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Trump ally who won his seat thanks to Trump’s endorsement, tried to draw a contrast between the tax priorities of President Joe Biden’s administration, which encouraged alternative energy, and Trump and Republicans now.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Moreno claimed that while Democrats created a $7,500 tax credit for buying an electric vehicle, Trump and Republicans were providing $7,500 to typical families.
The claim, however, falsely suggests that the $2,200 per child tax credit is brand new — rather than a $200 increase over the existing one — and conflates a tax credit with a tax deduction, which is worth considerably less.
In reality, the total value of the tax breaks Moreno cites in his example is only $1,916 — one-fourth of what he claimed in his post.
Moreno’s aides declined to comment for this story.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the tariffs, tax cut extensions skewed to favor the wealthiest Americans, and cuts to Medicaid and food stamps in the bill reveal Trump’s true priorities.
“On Day One, he promised to lower costs but instead he passed the largest cuts to health care and food assistance in American history and has dragged the American people into a chaotic trade war with no end in sight,” Martin said. “The bottom line: Trump is a crooked liar and a con artist rigging the economy for the ultra-wealthy.”