President Donald Trump’s businesses “could” be helped under the newly passed House tax plan, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday, but she claimed the legislation will cost the President on the “personal side.”
Trump has long contended that the Republican tax plan would cost him and his family “a fortune,” as he said during a speech in Missouri last month.
But because Trump has not released his tax returns. many questions about his finances remain unanswered.
A few provisions in the Senate plan suggest that he and his family likely wouldn’t be hit hard at all.
Sanders said the White House stands by Trump’s claim that the tax plan will cost him.
“We expect that it likely will, certainly on the personal side, could cost the president a lot of money,” Sanders said.
She later said, “In some ways, particularly on the personal side, the President will likely take a big hit. But on the business side he could benefit.”
Whether Trump benefits or is hurt by the plan, Sanders added, was not the White House’s focus.
“The biggest focus on this White House has been to make sure all Americans are better off today, after this tax package passes, than they were beforehand,” she said, adding that Trump’s focus “hasn’t necessarily been at all on himself.”
It is unclear how Sanders knows how the bill would affect Trump’s bottom line given that he has not released his tax returns.
Sanders said again on Tuesday that Trump has no plans to release them.
“As we have said, many, many times before, the President’s taxes are still under audit, and until that is complete then we wouldn’t move forward,” Sanders said.
The President’s and Vice President’s taxes are audited every year, according to IRS standards. The practice of doing a “mandatory examination” of the presidential and vice presidential tax returns has been in the Internal Revenue Manual since the Watergate era, according to the IRS.
It has been tradition for the past 40 years that presidents and presidential candidates publicly release their tax returns. Trump also declined to do so on the campaign trail.