Former President Donald Trump told an influential group of CEOs that he wants to further cut the corporate tax rate he lowered while in office, while President Joe Biden’s chief of staff separately told them that the Democratic incumbent’s emphasis on global alliances would help their businesses.
Both Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Jeffrey Zients met behind closed doors on Thursday with the Business Roundtable in Washington, with Zients stepping in for Biden during the president’s meetings with Group of Seven leaders in Italy. The prominent group representing more than 200 CEOs just rolled out an effort to preserve the tax breaks for businesses that Trump signed into law in 2017.
Neither side commented publicly on what was said in the meeting, which comes as Biden and Trump head toward a 2020 rematch with sharply different views on taxes and the economy.
Trump said that he would like to cut the corporate tax rate by a percentage point to an even 20%, according to a person familiar with his remarks who insisted on anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting. The former president focused his remarks on taxes, inflation and the need for more oil production, the person said.
Another person familiar with the conversations said Zients made the case that America’s global reputation and its independent institutions such as the Federal Reserve fostered the kind of trust worldwide that a
