Donald Trump Unveils More Detailed Economic Policy Plan, Interrupted by Protesters
Protesters repeatedly disrupt his Detroit speech.
—DETROIT -- Donald Trump, addressing the Detroit Economic Club, today rolled out a new version of his economic plan. In it he advocated tax-exempt child care expenses, adjusted his previous call for four income tax brackets to three and called for abolishing the so-called death tax.
“I want to jump-start America, and it can be done, and it won't even be that hard,” Trump said today.
“American workers have paid taxes their whole lives, and they should not be taxed again at death,” Trump said of the estate tax. “It is just plain wrong, and most people agree with that.”
Trump called his plan "the biggest tax reform since [Ronald] Reagan.”
“It will present a night-and-day contrast to the job-killing, tax-raising, poverty-inducing Obama-Clinton agenda,” Trump said.
He used the Detroit backdrop to attack his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
“The city of Detroit is the living, breathing example of my opponent’s failed economic agenda,” he said. “She is the candidate of the past. Ours is the campaign of the future.”
Trump expressed doubt about the latest monthly unemployment figure, which the Labor Department put at 4.9 percent for July. “The 5 percent figure is one of the biggest hoaxes in American modern politics,” he said.
Distracting from the highly publicized speech were a number of protesters. While Trump is no stranger to disruptions at his rallies, the candidate found himself interrupted 14 times during the first 25 minutes of his remarks today.
The protesters, almost of all of whom were women, shouted out every few minutes at the beginning of his speech. The Michigan People’s Campaign issued a news release saying it was behind the protests. While all invitees were members of the Detroit Economic Club, members could purchase tickets for others.
“You’ll have to answer to women,” one of the protesters shouted and, according to the release, Detroit food server Sarah Messer yelled, “Why are you blaming the victims of sexual harassment? Why shouldn’t women be safe at our work? It’s not our fault.”
The lone male protester shouted that Trump had “tiny hands.”
Trump later sent out a fundraising email acknowledging the protesters, part of which read, "I just delivered a major economic speech with concrete solutions to get our country back on track....But a group of left-wing protesters interrupted me over ten times in an attempt to get us off message."
Trump’s plan would cut taxes on the middle class, he said, though some economists predict the opposite effect.
The Tax Policy Center estimates Trump’s plan would add $9.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. If enacted, the plan would be the largest tax cut in modern U.S. history.
In calling for all child care expenses to be tax exempt, Trump's plan could go further than Clinton's. She has specified that she will be working to guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for new parents and people who need to care for ill relatives, which would be paid for by her proposed tax surcharge on multimillionaires.
During the Republican National Convention, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump appeared to preview her father’s policies focused on families.
“As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place at a time in which women were not a significant part of the workforce, and he will focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all,” she said.
This is Trump's first major policy speech since he laid out his national security plan in June. His plan also calls for a moratorium on new agency regulations, via executive order. And he would undo much of President Barack Obama’s climate change reform by rescinding the Climate Action Plan, the Waters of the United States rule and the Paris Climate Agreement (which aims to limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius) and halting payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.
Many of the themes in this plan echo a plan he released last September during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York City — including a call for the repeal and replacement of “Obamacare,” withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
But noticeably absent were major spending cuts. Entitlements, military spending and debt payments — three areas that Trump mentioned previously and account for more than 70 percent of the federal budget — were absent. Meanwhile, he previewed infrastructure costs to come.
“But we are going to look boldly into the future,” he promised. “We will build the next generation of roads, bridges, railways and tunnels and seaports and airports. That, believe me, folks, is what our country deserves.”
ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis contributed to this report.