President Donald Trump on Tuesday called into a meeting between two White House aides and a group of Senate Democrats to attempt to assure the Democrats that the Republican tax cut bill will not benefit him or other rich Americans, according to reports from NBC News and the Washington Post.
Trump told those present at the meeting that he had spoken with his personal accountant about the legislation, who told the President that he would suffer financially as a result of the bill, people in the room told the Washington Post and NBC News.
“My accountant called me and said ‘you’re going to get killed in this bill,'” Trump said, according to NBC News.
Trump also claimed that the legislation will hurt rich people in general, despite analysis from experts indicating that the plan will benefit wealthy Americans and corporations.
“The deal is so bad for rich people, I had to throw in the estate tax just to give them something,” he said, according to the Washington Post.
Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, was present at the meeting and confirmed Trump’s general comments to NBC News. Short told NBC that Trump was discussing individual tax rates and that the repeal of the estate tax is a separate issue.
Trump’s call to the Democrats came as they huddled with Short and Gary Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, to discuss the tax bill.
