Businessman and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Monday that hedge fund workers aren’t paying enough in taxes and that he wants to implement a system that will take care of the middle class.
“It’s one thing if you’re building buildings — I’ll take a little bit of something … you build buildings, you put people to work. These hedge fund guys, they move around papers, many of ’em. You know, if the market goes up they’re geniuses, [if] the market goes down … they go into a different business, frankly. They’re wiped out. They go into a different business,” Mr. Trump said Monday on “Fox and Friends.”
“They should be taxed a fair amount of money. They have all sorts of elements that are in their taxation, and I say it’s different from others, but they’re not paying enough tax,” he said. “And they’re making a fortune. It’s embarrassing, and they should be taxed. I know many of ’em — some are friends, some aren’t friends, and I guess probably after this, I won’t have too many friends.”
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“At some point, we have to take care of the middle class,” he said.
Mr. Trump has said he’d like to put H&R Block out of business by simplifying the tax code.
“The one problem I have with [a] flat tax is that rich people are paying the same as people that are making very little money, and I think there should be a graduation of some kind,” he said. “Because as you make a certain amount of money, I think you should have to graduate upward. That doesn’t mean a raise in taxes. That means rich people might be paying less than they’re paying right now.”
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“Look, we’re the most highly taxed nation in the world — that’s why taxes have to go down, business has to come back, jobs have to be back,” Mr. Trump said.
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