White House Watch: How Hard Is Trump Going to Work for the Tax Plan?

Which meant consequently that there was also no one from the White House to talk about the newly released details of the Republican tax reform proposal, which the House GOP unveiled last Thursday. The exception was Vice President Mike Pence, who appeared on Fox News’s business-focused Sunday Morning Futures. Pence told host Maria Bartiromo “there will be changes” to the House proposal as the legislative process plays out in both houses of Congress.

Among some of the changes Pence articulated? A move away from the proposed five-year phasing in of the 20-percent corporate income tax, which tax writers in Congress have been reportedly kicking around. Bartiromo pressed Pence on whether this cut should kick in immediately or in 2022, as the House prefers. “I think we believe it has to happen immediately, and we’re going to drive and drive hard,” Pence answered.

The vice president also declined to endorse a temporary rate increase of sorts on Americans making more than $1 million—what’s been called a “hidden bracket” of 45.6 percent. Defenders of the bill point out the short-term rate, described more precisely as a surcharge, is an effective “claw-back” of the benefit enjoyed by all taxpayers, most notably those in the lowest bracket, which does not tax the first $45,000 earned. Some estimates suggest those paying the hidden rate will end up paying slightly less in taxes under the fullness of the reform plan. Bartiromo called it a “tax increase,” and Pence didn’t give much of a fight.

“We think the House bill is a great start,” he added. “But at the end of the day the American people can be confident that President Trump is going to drive this legislation forward. . . . We’re going to make sure that we have tax relief across the board for working families and small businesses, family farmers and ranchers. And we’re going to make sure that while it’s not going to necessarily lower taxes on upper-income Americans, we’re going to make sure that it deals with upper-income Americans in a fair and equitable way.”

The Washington Post, meanwhile, is reporting that House Republicans are already preparing to “make further changes” to the legislation. Among them, House speaker Paul Ryan said on Fox News Sunday, could possibly be including a repeal of the individual insurance mandate in Obamacare—an idea first publicly floated by Arkansas senator Tom Cotton and taken up by President Trump a couple days later.

President Trump kicked off his 12-day, five-nation Asia trip on Sunday by giving a fiery speech to American troops stationed in Japan.

“No one—no dictator, no regime, and no nation—should underestimate, ever, American resolve,” Trump told the assembled soldiers at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo. “You are the greatest threat to tyrants and dictators who seek to prey on the innocent.”

Although he did not mention North Korea explicitly, Trump’s combative tone underscored the work he hopes to accomplish with the trip: rallying together Asian allies and adversaries alike to present a united economic front against the Kim regime.

A senior White House official said Sunday that the administration was considering labeling North Korea a state sponsor of terror. And Trump said aboard Air Force One that he planned to sit down with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss the issue at a summit for Asia-Pacific leaders in Vietnam on Thursday.

“We want Putin’s help on North Korea, and we’ll be meeting with a lot of different leaders,” Trump said.

Head-Scratcher of the Day—Speaking to a group of business leaders in Tokyo Monday morning, Trump directed a message at the automobile manufacturers in the room. “We love it when you build cars,” the president said. “Try building your cars in the United States instead of shipping them over.”

That would have been an out-of-date message to Japanese automakers 30 years ago, when several of them had already opened factories in the United States to compete with domestic producers. Today, there are more than a dozen plants in the U.S. making Japanese cars or car parts, including a major presence by Toyota, the largest automobile manufacturer in the world.

Update, 2:27 p.m.: Aaron Blake at the Washington Post provides the full remarks from Trump, which show the president acknowledged the Japanese auto presence in the United States. Right before Trump’s comments asking the automakers to build cars in America, he said this: “I also want to recognize the business leaders in the room whose confidence in the United States—they’ve been creating jobs—you have such confidence in the United States, and you’ve been creating jobs for our country for a long, long time. Several Japanese automobile industry firms have been really doing a job.”

President Trump tweeted his condolences on Sunday for the people of Sutherland Springs after a gunman shot dozens of people in the small Texas town’s Baptist church. At least 26 people were killed, and another 20 or so were injured.

Trump later gave remarks about the shooting from the home of the U.S. ambassador to Japan. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families of today’s horrible and murderous attack,” he said. “This act of evil occurred as the victims and their families were in their place of sacred worship. We cannot put into words the pain and grief we all feel and we cannot begin to imagine the suffering of those who lost the ones they so dearly loved.”

Trump also said he spoke with Texas governor Greg Abbott.

Law enforcement identified the shooter Sunday evening as 26-year-old Devin Kelley. Kelley was later declared dead after a short chase, although it was unclear whether he killed himself or was shot by police. Texas congressman Vicente Gonzalez told MSNBC that he did not believe the shooting to be related to terrorism.

“It was some kind of other incident that has to do with the church or the community,” Gonzalez said.

A Little More Conversation—The latest episode of Conversations with Bill Kristol has dropped, this one with Jonah Goldberg of National Review and the American Enterprise Institute. Watch Kristol and Goldberg discuss Donald Trump and the future of conservatism here.

Also, you can listen to the Goldberg interview my other WEEKLY STANDARD colleague, Andrew Ferguson, on his NR podcast, the Remnant, here.

The next charges to come in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe likely aren’t far away. Mueller’s team has gathered enough evidence to file charges against Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, as well as his son, according to a report from NBC News:

Flynn was forced out of the White House after just a few weeks in February. The stated reason: his pre-inauguration conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States, about which he subsequently lied to Vice President Mike Pence. A month later, he offered to testify before congressional investigators about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in exchange for immunity; the Senate Intelligence Committee turned him down.

Despite being named in the report, Mike Flynn Jr. appeared defiant on Twitter Sunday.

Song of the Day— “Wish I Knew You” by the Revivalists