In what could easily turn into a battle of online influencer titans for the ages, Matt Drudge called out mega-billionaire and “Dark MAGA” Trump supporter Elon Musk on X, formerly known as Twitter, bringing attention to former President Donald Trump’s past position on taxing the wealthy.
In his 2024 run for the White House, Trump promised massive tax cuts for corporate America and an extension of tax cuts for the wealthy that he had implemented in his first administration. These measures spurred the economy but also led to massive debt.
Drudge’s influential website, The Drudge Report, has been unafraid to promote and link to numerous articles and reports that paint Trump in a less-than-flattering light. For example, on Wednesday, the blaring headline reads, “OLD DON WANTED TAX ON BILLIONAIRES’ and “FROM SOCIALIST TO FASCIST!” It features an old Daily News front page and links to an ABC News report titled “Donald Trump Once Proposed the Biggest Tax Hike Ever.” The article reports:
The year was 1999 and Trump was toying with the idea of running for President as a third party candidate. The idea, which Trump says he no longer supports, was to impose a one-time tax of 14.25 percent on every American worth more than $10 million and raise exactly enough money to pay off the debt.
Trump himself would have had to pay more than $700 million. But he didn’t care. He calculated his plan would erase the entire national debt and save the government millions in interest payments, allowing tax cuts for everybody else.
Here’s how Trump described the plan on “Good Morning America” on Nov. 10, 1999:
“Well, basically, this would be a one-time tax, 14.25 percent against people with a net worth of over 10 million,” Trump said. “It would pay off in its entirety the national debt of $5.7 trillion, and you’d save $200 billion a year. So taxes for the middle class would go way down, the estate and inheritance tax totally wiped out, and the Social Security system would be saved.”
Drudge, a rare promoter of himself in any format, particularly social media, posted a screenshot of his homepage, tagging Elon Musk’s own X account as a clear shot across the bow.
Musk is the most visible megawealthy Silicon Valley “Bros” who have gone all in in support of Trump, which some skeptics have seen as a cynical cost savings maneuver designed only to save massively on taxes.
News emerged Wednesday morning that long after pledging not to donate any money to the Trump campaign, Musk has donated $75 Million to a pro-Trump America Pac, according to FEC filings reviewed by The Guardian.
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