Stephen King on Donald Trump's tax plan: US president 'couldn't give a sh*t' about working class

'Trump's no friend of the working man,' says horror author

Maya Oppenheim
Friday 29 September 2017 10:01 BST
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Mr Trump's plans seek to eliminate the estate tax which affects only a few thousand ultra-rich families each year
Mr Trump's plans seek to eliminate the estate tax which affects only a few thousand ultra-rich families each year

Stephen King has launched an attack on Donald Trump’s tax reform plan and argued the US president has zero concern for the working man.

The best-selling author, who penned The Shining, argued President Trump’s ambitious tax plan which was unveiled on Wednesday would reward the wealthiest and neglect those at the bottom.

Mr Trump has outlined plans to overhaul America’s tax code by proposing sweeping tax cuts in what he termed a “one-in-a-generation” opportunity. Addressing hundreds of supporters at an event in Indiana, he branded the current tax system a “relic” and a “colossal barrier” preventing America’s economic comeback.

“Trump's no friend of the working man. If you're working for wages, brothers and sisters, he couldn't give S**t One about you,” King wrote on Twitter.

He added: “Check his tax plan. Same old, same old. The fat man's busy dancing while the poor man pays the band.”

The horror author, whose books have sold more than 350 million copies, is a frequent critic of President Trump and has got so under his skin that the world leader blocked him on Twitter back in June. He has just released a new book Sleeping Beauties which includes a jibe at the president.

King has previously called for Mr Trump to be impeached, argued his access to nuclear weapons is “worse than any story” he has written and said he is an “almost textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder”.

President Trump’s tax reform plan, which sets out the most sweeping change in decades, seeks to axe the corporate rate from 35 per cent to 20 per cent.

It proposes three individual tax rates of 12 per cent, 25 per cent and 35 per cent, with a recommended surcharge on the very wealthy. Nevertheless, it does not set the income levels at which the rates would be applied to so it remains uncertain exactly how much of a tax cut would go to a typical family.

President Trump hailed the plan, which he is hoping will recover his embattled legislative agenda, as a “middle-class miracle” despite the fact the outline is short of detail about how middle-class families would come out of it and analysts conclude the benefits appear modest so far.

The billionaire businessman said: "This is a revolutionary change and the biggest winners will be the everyday American workers as jobs start pouring into our country, as companies start competing for American labour, and as wages start going up at levels that you haven't seen in many years”.

However, experts conclude the advantage of the proposals remains limited - partially because the economy is already expanding.

President Trump was adamant the tax plan would not benefit the “wealthy or well-connected”, saying: “They can call me all they want, it’s not gonna help.”

He added: “It’s not good for me, believe me. What is good for me is if everything takes off like a rocketship, like it should have for 20 years. That’s good for me.”

Mr Trump also used his speech to deride the estate tax, which affects only a few thousand ultra-rich families each year, and would be eliminated under his proposal. The change would predominantly benefit the upper echelons of earners including President Trump himself.

He also hopes to do away with the alternative minimum tax - a safety net in place to stop tax avoidance which resulted in the president paying $31 million in additional taxes in 2005.

Democrats criticised the plan with Senator Chuck Schumer saying it would provide a financial “windfall” for wealthy Americans and Senator Bernie Sanders dubbing the plan “morally repugnant.”

Mr Schumer argued the plan should be called “wealth-fare”, saying: "It seems that President Trump and Republicans have designed their plan to be cheered in the country clubs and the corporate boardrooms”.

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