Trump: I ‘love the concept’ of millionaire tax hike, but ‘may not be acceptable to the public’

President Trump in an interview published Friday said he loves the “concept” of raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for some of his policy proposals in a sweeping piece of legislation but acknowledged it may not be “acceptable to the public.”

Trump sat down Tuesday for an interview with Time magazine centered on his first 100 days in office and was asked about the idea floated by some Republicans to raise taxes on millionaires to offset the cost of extending tax cuts, as well as adding the new cuts the president proposed while on the campaign trail.

His comments were made one day before Trump warned the concept of a higher tax on millionaires would be “disruptive.”

“It doesn’t make that much difference, and yet, I could just see somebody trying to bring that up as a subject, and, you know, say, ‘Oh, he raised taxes.’ Well, I wouldn’t be, really, you know, in the true sense, I wouldn’t. I’d be raising them on wealthy to take care of middle class,” Trump told Time.

“And that’s — I love, that. I actually love the concept, but I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I’ve seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news,” he added.

Asked if a tax increase on the wealthy would help cover the cost of campaign proposals such as eliminating taxes on tipped wages, overtime wages and Social Security, Trump reiterated that he “would not mind personally paying more.”

“But the concept is something that may not be acceptable to the public,” the president said.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that a tax increase on millionaires “would be very disruptive, because a lot of the millionaires would leave the country.”

“Now with transportation so quick and so easy, they leave countries,” he added at the time.

Republicans have been kicking around the idea of a roughly 40 percent top tax bracket on income above $1 million amid talks about the sweeping reconciliation package GOP lawmakers are crafting. The move would be a break with GOP orthodoxy, and not everyone in the party is on board.

Raising the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent from its current level of 37 percent amounts to almost the same thing as reverting to the pre-2017 tax code — a rate the code would return to at the end of the year if Republicans do not pass an extension of Trump’s previous tax cuts.

The top rate of 37 percent that’s currently in place applies to households making at least $609,351.

Updated at 9:44 a.m. EDT