CNN Fact-Checks Trump’s Tax Plan That Economists Say Will Actually Increase Taxes: ‘Data Seems to Point in the Other Direction’

Former President Donald Trump made a lot of promises during a speech about his economic plans on Tuesday, but some of the numbers fell short on the truth.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes , who has been reporting on the Trump campaign, covered the speech in Savannah, Georgia and presented some of the ideas Trump talked about to anchor Jim Sciutto :

Sciutto: Kristen, it seems to be a consistent Trump message, is tax breaks for you and you and you. I wonder how he does the math on all that.

Holmes: Yeah, we don’t really have an answer on how exactly he’s doing the math, but I do want to talk a little bit about his focus on the economy. As you heard there, [CNN’s David Chalian ] laying out those numbers, a pretty stark difference between voters who believe Donald Trump could do a better job on the economy moving forward. Then [Vice President] Kamala Harris , his campaign is hoping to seize on that, and hoping Donald Trump will stay on message talking about the economy.

Now, the speech has been about 50-50. He talked about the debate. He relitigated what happened with Vice President Kamala Harris, and he just went through the details of both the first and second assassination attempt. But when he has talked about the economy, the message here is clear. He wants to bring back American jobs if he is reelected. And he’s also saying that if he’s reelected, he wants to “take jobs from foreign countries.”

Holmes continued, and offered up a reality check on the numbers surrounding Trump’s tax plans:

So, Jim, you might be wondering how he plans to bring those jobs here to America. Well, one of the things that he has said is that he would have a 15 percent corporate tax rate for companies that build things here in America or were produced here in the United States. Now, just to give you a little bit of a fact-check here — the Committee for Responsible Budget says this would actually reduce revenue by $200 billion , so wouldn’t seem to be increasing there, as Donald Trump was saying.

The other thing Donald Trump has promised to do is increase tariffs at some points, promising 200 percent tariffs for countries who don’t make things here in the United States. Now, according to the Tax Foundation, they say that this would actually increase, raise taxes by $524 billion and reduce full-time jobs . And it’s clear Donald Trump has heard some of this pushback today. He was arguing that increasing tariffs would not increase inflation, as we have heard from a number of economists. Jim?

“The data seems to point in the other direction,” replied Sciutto. “Kristen Holmes, thanks so much.”

Watch the video above via CNN.