Trump has definitely said some conflicting things about his “plan” to lower taxes, or maybe raise taxes, or maybe keep them the same…it’s pretty hard to say really what he means. He has not released a coherent tax plan, and when he tried to clarify on several news shows on Sunday he just muddied the waters further.

On ABC’s “This Week” he said “on my plan they’re going down. But by the time it’s negotiated, they’ll go up.” OK, so taxes are going up?

Later that day on CNN’s “New Day” he said “now, if I increase it on the wealthy, they’re still going to pay less than they pay now. I’m not talking about increasing from this point. I’m talking about increasing from my tax proposal.” Right, so they’re going down?

But then later that same day he said “we’re going to submit the optimum. That’s what I’d like to get and we’ll fight for it. But from a practical standpoint, it’s going to get renegotiated. And in my opinion, the taxes for the rich will go up somewhat.” Wait, so they are going up?

Great so they’re going up for the rich, could you elaborate on that? “It’s a concept,” Trump said Sunday. “And I’ll tell you what the real concept is, lower taxes for business, lower taxes for the middle class, lower taxes for everybody.” Oh for heaven’s sake, what the hell do you mean? Yes or no? Surely he wouldn’t change his position again right?

“Our businesses pay more taxes than any businesses in the world. [This is patently false, natch] That’s why companies are leaving. So they may have to pay a little bit more than my proposal.” I give up.

I want to stress that all of these quotes are from Sunday May 8th and Monday May 9th. There are more contradictory quotes too. Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t even know if he wants to raise or lower taxes, much less come up with a coherent plan to implement whatever it is that he wants to do.

Sources:
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump?lang=en
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/08/politics/donald-trump-taxes-wealthy/index.html
https://whatdonaldtrumpliedaboutyesterday.com/2016/02/27/america-is-the-highest-taxed-country-in-the-world-not-by-a-long-shot-mr-trump/