Millionaire Trump Adviser Says Americans Can 'Buy A New Car' With $1,000 Tax Cut

Chris D'Angelo
Updated

President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser — Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president worth an estimated $266 million — appears to be completely clueless about what the average American family spends on a car, vacation or home improvement project.

Hours after falsely claiming that “the wealthy are not getting a tax cut” under Trump’s tax reform plan, Cohn appeared at a White House press briefing and spoke to what middle-class Americans have to look forward to. Based on the administration’s assumptions, he said, a typical family that has two children and earns $100,000 per year can expect annual tax savings of approximately $1,000.

“If we allow a family to keep another thousand dollars of their income, what does that mean?” he asked. “They can renovate their kitchen. They can buy a new car. They can take a family vacation. They can increase their lifestyle.”

The rather tone-deaf comment came in response to a question about how Trump — who could see savings of more than $125 million per year under his own plan — can claim the proposal doesn’t benefit him personally.

Dodging the question entirely, Cohn said: “I think what the American people are concerned about is their financial position. I think what they’re concerned about is when they go to work every week and they get their paycheck at the end of the week, how much do they get to keep? How much goes in their pocket versus how much goes to the government?”

“Our tax plan is aimed to return more income back to hard-working Americans,” he added.

In an interview on Thursday with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Cohn falsely claimed that Trump’s plan doesn’t offer a tax cut to the wealthy. He also said he “can’t guarantee” that certain middle-class families — the very people the Trump team says its plan aims to help — wouldn’t see their taxes increase.

“There’s an exception to every rule,” Cohn told George Stephanopoulos. “I can’t guarantee anything. You can always find a unique family somewhere.”

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.