Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said President Donald Trump wants to end taxes for anyone earning less than $150,000 a year.
Lutnick said Trump wants to overhaul who pays what, according to a video posted to X of an interview Lutnick had with CBS.
“How about no tax on tips? How about no tax on overtime? How about no Social Security? How about all those things?” Lutnick said, referring to the deduction workers pay for Social Security, not the benefits they receive.
🚨BREAKING: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says President Trump wants no taxes for people who make less than $150,000 a year.
pic.twitter.com/J1COS3sMxm— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 13, 2025
“These are the kind of thoughts that will change America,” he said.
“I know what his goal is,” Lutnick said, referring to Trump, “no tax, for anybody who makes less than $150,000 a year. That’s his goal, and that’s what I’m working for.”
Elsewhere, Lutnick said a bumpy ride for the economy in the short-term is worth it to bring America where Trump wants it to be.
Should taxes on the middle class be eliminated?
“These policies are the most important thing America has ever had,” Lutnick told CBS. “It’s worth it.”
“The only reason there could possibly be a recession is because the Biden nonsense that we had to live with. These policies produce revenues. They produce growth. They produce factories being built here,” he said.
Lutnick said Trump’s tariff diplomacy is designed to bring parties together, particularly when the other side is not trying to make a deal.
“When you’re negotiating with someone and they’re not paying attention and they’re disagreeing, the president, who’s the best dealmaker ever to sit in that chair, he’s going to say, ‘Here’s my response,’” Lutnick said. “And then all of a sudden, shockingly, they respond.”
Noting Trump’s tariff increase on Canada that was quickly dropped, he said it was a negotiation tactic.
“He needed to break some guy in Ontario who said he was going to tax American energy 25 percent. The president of the United States in the White House says, ‘Oh no, you won’t,’ and breaks him. Breaks him … by a tweet and a truth. And you think that’s chaotic?’” Lutnick said, referring to a Trump Truth Social post about Canada.
“Let the dealmaker make his deals,” Lutnick said, saying that soon, a nation dealing with the U.S. will “realize it doesn’t need to do it this way.”
“Let’s just do it the grown-up way, where the biggest economy in the world says, ‘I don’t like the way you’re treating us. How about a little respect? How about a little dignity?’” he said.
Trump has hedged on whether a recession might precede the vision he hopes to achieve.
“I hate to predict things like that,” he said, according to Fox News. “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing … it takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”
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