Tropical storm Harvey was still destroying the lives of tens of thousands in southeast Texas and making its way towards Louisiana, but Donald Trump was eager to pivot to tax reform on Wednesday. Delivering another campaign-style speech in Missouri, Trump painted his planned tax overhaul as a populist economic solution that will help low-income and middle-income Americans. Left absent from the speech, however, was any actual substance beyond the promises of economic growth.
"It’s time to give the American workers the pay raise that they have been looking for for many, many years," Trump said on Wednesday. "We're here today to launch our plans to bring back Main Street by reducing the crumbling burden on our companies and on our workers," he added, according to CNN. "The foundation of our job creation agenda is to fundamentally reform our tax code for the first time in more than 30 years."
Trump's speech went over so poorly that even far-right provocateur Ann Coulter wasn't sold on it.
"This is for Wall Street," the far-right provocateur complained amongst a series of furious tweets regarding Trump's tax reform speech.
Coulter couldn't believe what she was hearing and continued to blast the president for his hollow remarks on tax reform.
"WTF! Why is @realDonaldTrump back to tax cuts? His election was NOT about tax cuts. Has he been talking to @SpeakerRyan again?" Coulter wrote, referring to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
"This is the worst, most tone-deaf speech @realDonaldTrump has ever given. Jeb! had better ideas," she wrote in another tweet.
According to Coulter, tax reform should be an issue Trump focuses on in a second term. He should be focused on his so-called America first policies now, she argued.
"Cutting taxes doesn't do a damn thing for wages if you allow businesses to keep bringing in cheap foreign labor!" Coulter continued in her expletive-laced rant that lasted over a dozen tweets.
"Bush cut taxes! Did it create millions of jobs? Nope. The rich pocketed their tax cut & sent jobs abroad, hired guest workers. F-- them," she added.
The timing of Trump's speech, mixed with its hollow ambitions, proves that Trump didn't think this through. The New York Times elaborated:
Wrapping his message in the populist rhetoric that powered his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump called for quick action from Congress on the ambitious tax plan he has promised for months, but he offered few specifics beyond a goal of a 15 percent corporate tax rate, down from 35 percent.
[...]
Still, Mr. Trump made plain the broad outlines of his vision for overhauling the tax code: a combination of deep cuts for businesses large and small as well as investors and the wealthiest, along with as reductions for middle-class people, only partially paid for by eliminating some deductions and boosting economic growth.
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