Trump says 'as a rich person' he wouldn't mind paying more taxes

Brent D. Griffiths

Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 11:04 AM 3 min read

• President Donald Trump said he wouldn't mind paying more in taxes.

• According to his past returns and previous reports, he's paid relatively little for decades.

• In 2017, he paid $750 in federal income taxes.

President Donald Trump said he wouldn't mind paying more in taxes himself, but he's not entirely convinced that congressional Republicans should raise taxes on millionaires.

"Well, I'll tell ya, I certainly don't mind having a tax increase," Trump told Time Magazine in a wide-ranging interview published on Friday.

Trump said the reason he is hesitant about such a policy is because of how much political heat President George H.W. Bush took for agreeing to a deal with congressional Democrats that violated his pledge to, "Read my lips: no new taxes."

Unlike many fellow Republicans, Trump said he supported the general concept of forcing the wealthy to pay more to benefit the middle class.

"I'd be raising them on wealthy to take care of middle class. And that's—I love, that," Trump said. "I actually love the concept, but I don't want it to be used against me politically, because I've seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news."

According to Time, Trump made his comments on Tuesday. A day later, it appeared the president had drastically changed his tune on the subject.

"I think it would be very disruptive, because a lot of the millionaires would leave the country," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. "The old days, they left states. They go from one state to the other. Now with transportation so quick and so easy, they leave countries."

Trump said the US would "lose a lot of money" if it raised taxes on millionaires.

"And other countries that have done it have lost a lot of people," he said. "They lose their wealthy people. That would be bad, because the wealthy people pay the tax."

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request to explain the apparent discrepancy in Trump's comments.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are reportedly considering raising taxes on the highest earners to help cover the cost of Trump's sweeping tax cut and immigration legislation, which the president has called his one "big, beautiful bill." Republicans are using a special procedural power that would allow them to pass the bill without the support of a single Democratic vote. It also means that with slim majorities in both houses, Trump and Republican leaders can only afford to lose a few votes.