Former President Donald Trump has revised the details of his proposal to give car buyers a tax break.
Trump, speaking at an Oct. 22 campaign rally in Greensboro, N.C., said that anyone who takes out a car loan would be able to deduct those payments “fully” from federal taxes, but “only if the car is manufactured in the United States.”
In response, the crowd at the 5,000-seat Greensboro Complex chanted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
Limiting deductibility for loans on domestically produced cars would likely incentivize people to buy cars made in America, thus boosting U.S. automakers, Trump said, who has pledged to enact a number of tax-relief measures if he wins reelection on Nov. 5.
Trump had first announced the plan to allow car loan tax deductions on Oct. 10 at a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club in Michigan, a state where automobile manufacturing has played a vital economic role for decades.
However, at that event, Trump didn’t specify that loans on cars produced overseas would be excluded from the tax-deductible provision.
Afterward, “I just made a decision to do it a little bit differently,” he told the audience in Greensboro.
Importance of North Carolina
The Tar Heel State is among a handful of swing states that are likely to decide the presidential race between the former president, a Republican, and Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat. In North Carolina—and several other states—a margin of less than 1 percent separates the two contenders, according to the RealClearPolitics average of opinion polls as of Oct. 23.
During his Greensboro rally, Trump reiterated his plans to implement policies intended to help businesses as well as consumers.
“This state was once the beating heart of American manufacturing,” he said, “but politicians allowed your jobs to be stolen from you and plundered to other countries.”
North Carolina had been renowned for finely crafted furniture, the former president said, but that industry has been decimated. He blamed tariff policies that failed to shield American businesses from foreign competition., adding that he personally appreciated the quality of “artisan”-produced North Carolina furniture.
In addition, Trump promised, “I will protect our workers.”
“I will massively cut taxes for workers and small businesses,“ he said, also advocating for ”no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on social security benefits.”
Trump also repeated his pledge to cut energy costs by 50 percent within the first year of a second Trump administration. He said he will lower energy costs by increasing oil production, reversing “green” policies, and loosening business regulations. If energy costs decrease, so does the cost of almost everything else, he said, acknowledging that people have been struggling with high prices for daily essentials, such as groceries and gasoline.
