After all of the negative reports which have been flying around, apparently sourced by legitimate interlocutors inside the White House raising doubts about Trump's sanity, Trump first doubled down on his threat to the news media before agreeing to a clearly pre-staged strokefest interview with Sean Hannity.
This was no interview. It was instead Sean Hannity rubbing Trump's back softly, telling him what a good boy he is and letting him vent about any old thing.
They began with tax cuts, which is where Trump turned on his salesman demeanor to reassure everyone the tax cuts were gonna be great for everyone -- everyone! Everyone is going to pay less taxes, get great healthcare, and jobs will flow like they would in the land of milk and honey.
Hannity drilled down a bit in order to give Trump an opportunity to dump on some blue states like California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey.
"Every time I tune into everybody else in the media except Fox, the tax cut the rate for some people it goes down but if you live in a state like New York or Illinois and New Jersey or California, you will be able to deduct your local or state income tax. Your elected politicians, you will pay the penalty," Hannity blathered. "It's not really true that there is a tax cut for the wealthy as you are portraying it -- as they are portraying it. What he respond -- how do you respond to that?"
If you understood that question, you're a better person than I. But basically, he's saying that in those states, there's no tax break for people because their state tax deduction is taken away (which is double taxation, by the way).
Trump's answer was...remarkable, in so many ways.
"It's unfair that a state that is well-run is really subsidizing states that have been horribly mismanaged," he lied through his tiny little teeth, ignoring farm subsidies and other ways those four states subsidize other states. And he did go on.
"I won't use names but we understand the names," the gossipy orange man snarled. "There are some states that have hundreds of millions and billions of dollars in borrowing. It's unfair that those states really are being subsidized by states like Indiana and Iowa."
"I could name many states," he said, happily, as if he was performing for a psychologist or perhaps a grade school teacher.. "I could probably name three quarters of them. They are so well rounded and they are being penalized. It's not fair."
Boo fcking hoo.
"We are showing that. The tax cuts are so steep that the people in every state benefit. It's finally time to say hey, make sure your politicians do a good job of running your state. Otherwise, you are not going to benefit," he finished.
Apparently neither are ALL THE RED STATES California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois subsidize in one way or another. Here's a handy chart from 2014. Note that all four states receive less than the dollar they send to the federal government. Note which states receive far more than the dollar they send.
Of course, Fox viewers don't really care so much about facts and things, but the rest of us do, so please do feel free to share.
