Donald Trump stopped by Fox & Friends on Monday morning to talk about his ideas on taxes, saying he disagrees with his GOP rivals regarding how much the wealthy should pay.
Despite the economical benefits of taxing the very rich the same as the working-class–namely, the fact that they would pay less in taxes on additional income, which could push them to seek work–Trump says he believes that those who make a lot of money should pay more in taxes than those who make very little.
“The one problem I have with a flat tax is that rich people are paying the same as people that are making very little money. I think there should be a graduation of some kind,” Trump said.
Trump’s controversial stances and statements haven’t kept him from taking the lead over his Republican rivals, but they have ensured he isn’t making any friends on the campaign trail. Back in July, he made several disparaging comments about Senator John McCain which earned him backlash from an audience in Iowa.
“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said. He later amended his comments, saying he didn’t feel that way about all war heroes.
“I’m with the veterans all the time. I consider them heroes. If somebody’s a prisoner, I consider them a war hero…I think John McCain’s done very little for the veterans. I’m very disappointed in John McCain,” Donald Trump said, adding that McCain is “yet another all talk, no action politician who spends too much time on television and not enough time doing his job.”
Donald Trump recently gave voters an “I-told-you-so” after a market slump in China brought on a financial slump around the world. Trump says he’s been warning the U.S. for years about having such a heavy dependency on China.
“I’ve been talking about China for years. Because China’s going bad it’s going to bring us down, too, because we’re so heavily coupled with China. I’m the one that says you better start uncoupling from China because China’s got problems,” Donald Trump said.