page_title: Presidency of Donald Trump
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of Donald Trump / Domestic policy / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: President Donald J. Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence met with key automobile industry leaders in the Roosevelt Room this morning to discuss how we can revive the automobile industry and boost American jobs. Buy American and hire American!
context_page_description: The presidency of Donald Trump began at noon EST on January 20, 2017, when he was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, succeeding Barack Obama. A Republican, Trump was a businessman and reality television personality from New York City at the time of his 2016 presidential election victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. While Trump lost the popular vote, he won the Electoral College vote, 304 to 227, in a presidential contest that American intelligence agencies concluded was targeted by a Russian interference campaign. Trump has made many false or misleading statements during his campaign and presidency. The statements have been documented by fact-checkers, with political scientists and historians widely describing the phenomenon as unprecedented in modern American politics. Trump's approval rating has been stable, hovering at high-30 to mid-40 percent throughout his presidency.
  Trump rolled back numerous environmental protections, as well as reducing enforcement of existing regulations.
context_section_description: Trump's economic policies have centered on cutting taxes, deregulation, and trade protectionism.
  One of Trump's first actions was to indefinitely suspend a cut in fee rates for federally-insured mortgages implemented by the Obama administration which saved individuals with lower credit scores around $500 per year on a typical loan.
  In September 2017, the DOJ announced it would not defend in courts a mandate that would have extended overtime benefits to more than four million workers.
  The administration proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as food stamps, which if implemented would lead millions to lose access to food stamps and limit the size of food stamps for remaining recipients.
  In September 2017, the administration proposed a tax overhaul, which became the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The proposal involved reducing the corporate tax rate, eliminating the estate tax, and changing the number of tax brackets from seven to three on individual returns. Other mesaures in the proposal included applying a 25% tax rate to business income reported on a personal tax return; eliminating the alternative minimum tax and personal exemptions; doubling the standard deduction; and eliminating many itemized deductions (specifically retaining the deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions).
  According to The New York Times, the plan would result in a "huge windfall" for the very wealthy but would not benefit those in the bottom third of the income distribution. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated that the richest 0.1% and 1% would benefit the most in raw dollar amounts and percentage terms from the tax plan, earning 10.2% and 8.5% more income after taxes respectively. Middle-class households would on average earn 1.2% more after tax, but 13.5% of middle class households would see their tax burden increase. The poorest fifth of Americans would earn 0.5% more. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued that the corporate income tax cut will benefit workers the most; however, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Congressional Budget Office and many economists estimated that owners of capital would benefit vastly more than workers. A preliminary estimate by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that the tax plan would add more than $2 trillion over the next decade to the federal debt, while the Tax Policy Center found that it would add $2.4 trillion to the debt. A 2019 Congressional Research Service analysis found that the tax cuts had "a relatively small (if any) first-year" growth effect on the economy. A 2019 analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget concluded that Trump's policies will add $4.1 trillion to the national debt from 2017 to 2029. Around $1.8 trillion of debt is projected to eventually arise from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
  During his tenure, Trump has sought to intervene in the economy to affect specific companies and industries. Trump sought to compel power grid operators to buy coal and nuclear energy, and sought tariffs on metals to protect domestic metal producers. Trump also publicly attacked Boeing and Lockheed Martin, sending their stocks tumbling. Trump repeatedly singled out Amazon for criticism and advocated steps that would harm the company, such as ending an arrangement between Amazon and the USPS and raising taxes on Amazon. Trump expressed opposition to the merger between Time Warner (the parent company of CNN) and AT&T.
  In March 2018, Trump imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines of 30 to 50 percent. In March 2018 he imposed tariffs on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) from most countries, which, according to Morgan Stanley, covered an estimated 4.1 percent of U.S. imports. On June 1, 2018, this was extended to the European Union, Canada, and Mexico. In separate moves, the Trump administration has set and escalated tariffs on goods imported from China, leading to a trade war. The tariffs angered trading partners, who implemented retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. Studies found that Trump
caption: Trump and Vice President Pence with key automobile industry leaders, January 24, 2017
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