Trump, looking to reset campaign, delivers major economic address

Trump speech to the Detroit Economic Club - key policy points

• Temporary moratorium on new federal regulations
• Reduce the top income tax rate from 39.6% to 33%
• Income tax for middle-income earners would remain static at 25%*
• Reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%
• Make childcare costs tax-deductible for working parents
• Reject TPP, renege on North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta)

After a fortnight of antics and firing at random targets from a dead war hero to a crying baby, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sought to reset his campaign to a more serious tone with a major economic address this morning NZT — his first since naming a 13-man economic advisory team.**

It was a solid performance, and help him regain support with mainstream Republicans as he abandoned his "tax the rich" rhetoric in favour of embracing tax cuts for the rich, a.k.a trickedown economics.

However, Mr Trump also continued to reject Republican orthodoxy on trade. He used his speech to reiterate his protectionist stance in general, and his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in specific.

And he also nudged into Democrat territory with a pledge that childcare would be excluded from taxation — a policy that could be aimed at turning around his lousy numbers with women voters.

The nominee hopes to implement a temporary ban on new federal regulations through a presidential directive, but his other economic initiatives would need to gain the support of Congress and avoid any challenge by the Supreme Court.

Initial press coverage was mostly neutral — a big step up from the outright hostility Mr Trump has faced recently — although The Atlantic called his approach a "Shotgun Marriage of Populism and Supply-Side Economics".

For NBR economics editor Rob Hosking, the Detroit speech "Looks like a series of talking points rather than a policy. It would be fiscally expensive: there might be some supply-side benefit from lower taxes but I seriously doubt it would be sufficient to make up for the kind of deficit tax reductions on this scale would produce."

He adds, "The disappointing though not surprising thing is that Mr Trump could have used this to stake out the intellectual ground for a simplification of the tangled US tax system, which currently resembles a couple of dozen rolls of barbed wire which decided to fight each other all at once. But then, that’s not what Trump is really about."

Badly needs reset
The Republican candidate badly needs a reset. The latest polls have him trailing rival Hillary Clinton by an average seven points, with the Democrat increasing her lead in all of the major battleground states this week.

Mr Trump has also maintained a moratorium on attacking 'establishment' Republicans since Friday, when he belatedly endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan in his primary race for his Congressional seat. Ill-feeling could linger, however.

Mr Ryan's challenger for the Republican nomination for his Wisconsin seat, Paul Nehlen — described as "a 47-year-old businessman with tattooed biceps and a deep affinity for Trump" — has run a crude campaign that has included several protests outside the Speaker's home. Mr Nehlen is expected to lose by a large margin, but it seems unlikely Mr Ryan (the highest-ranked elected Republican) will easily forget the animosity that the Trump campaign quite literally brought into his front yard.

There could be more trouble on the horizon. Fox News reports that Evan McMullin, a 40-year-old former CIA operative and ex-chief policy director for the House Republican Conference is expected to officially launch an anti-Trump independent presidential bid today. The presidential race already includes Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, the ex-Republican governor of New Mexico who is drawing up to 12% support in some polls as he draws support from disaffected Republicans and Democrats, and Green candidate Jill Stein, who is registering in the low single digits.

Click the hamburger symbol top right of our homepage to access the Rich List 2016 and other sections.

* Trump's proposed changes to personal income tax rates:

** Fortune summarises:

The all-male economic advisory team draws heavily from Wall Street, featuring hedge fund executives like John Paulson, who made his fortune betting against the subprime market last decade, and Stephen Feinberg, co-founder of asset management firm Cerberus Capital Management.

Trump also draws heavily from the world of real estate, while also including figures like Dan DiMicco, Executive Chairman of the steel manufacturer Nucor, a move which emphasises Trump’s campaign theme of revitalizing American manufacturing. Other members include:

• Thomas Barrack, Founder and Executive Chairman of Colony Capital,
• Andy Beal, Founder and Chairman of Beal Bank and Beal Bank USA
• Stephen M. Calk, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Federal Savings Bank,
• Dan Kowalski, Deputy Staff Director of the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee
• Howard M. Lorber, President and CEO of Vector Group Ltd
• David Malpass, former Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Reagan, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President George W. Bush.
• Steven Mnuchin, Chairman and CEO of Dune Capital Management LP
• Stephen Moore, economist and founder of Club for Growth
• Peter Navarro, economist, Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine
• Steven Roth, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Vornado Realty Trust

He also pledged that childcare would be excluded from taxation — a policy that could be aimed at turning around his lousy numbers with women voters.