The Blubber

President Donald Trump, in an interview published Friday, said he’s fond of the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy to help fund some of his policy proposals — but acknowledged the concept might not be “acceptable to the public.”

Speaking to Time magazine on Tuesday about his first 100 days in office, Trump was asked about a proposal floated by some Republicans to increase taxes on millionaires to offset the cost of extending existing tax cuts and implementing new ones he had pitched on the campaign trail.

His remarks came just a day before he warned that taxing the wealthy more heavily could be “disruptive.”

“It doesn’t make that much difference, and yet, I could just see somebody trying to bring that up as a subject and, you know, say, ‘Oh, he raised taxes.’ Well, I wouldn’t be, really — in the true sense — I wouldn’t. I’d be raising them on the wealthy to take care of the middle class,” Trump told Time.

“And that’s — I love that. I actually love the concept, but I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I’ve seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news,” he added.

Asked whether such a tax hike could help cover the cost of campaign promises like eliminating taxes on tipped wages, overtime pay, and Social Security, Trump said he “would not mind personally paying more.”

“But the concept is something that may not be acceptable to the public,” he added.

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters a tax increase on millionaires “would be very disruptive, because a lot of the millionaires would leave the country.”

“Now with transportation so quick and so easy, they leave countries,” he said.

Republicans have been debating whether to introduce a roughly 40 percent top tax bracket on income over $1 million as part of a sweeping reconciliation package currently in the works. The proposal would mark a break from traditional GOP tax policy, and has met with resistance within the party.

Raising the top marginal tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent would essentially restore the pre-2017 tax code level — a rate that will return automatically at the end of the year if the Trump-era tax cuts aren’t extended.

Currently, the 37 percent rate applies to households earning at least $609,351.