Trump says raising taxes on the rich is ‘good politics’ but also risky

President Trump said raising taxes on the rich is “good politics,” but said he’d be pilloried by the media and politicians on both sides if he were to do so.

“I would love to do it, [tax] rich people. I would love to do it frankly, but what we’ll do is that you know, they’ll go around saying, ‘Oh, this is so terrible,’” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “You’re giving up something up top in order to make people with the middle income and lower income brackets save more.”

“So it’s really a redistribution, and I’m willing to do it if they want,” he continued. “I would love to be able to give people with the middle income and lower income that big break by giving up some of what I have. But I’ll tell you, a lot of people say don’t do it because you have the Bush statement about ‘read my lips.’”

The comments didn’t offer any new clarity about whether he planned to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Hours earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say if he wants the top rates to increase.

“The president has said he himself personally would not mind paying a little bit more to help the poor and the middle class and the working class in this country,” Ms. Leavitt said.  “I think, frankly, that’s a very honorable position. But again, these negotiations are ongoing on Capitol Hill, and the president will weigh in when he feels necessary.”

Mr. Trump tepidly floated the tax idea on social media, only to warn Republican lawmakers to “probably not” take that step. He then appeared to reverse himself again by saying he was “OK if they do it.”

In a Truth Social post earlier Friday, Mr. Trump said he “and all others” would “graciously accept even a TINY tax increase from the RICH” to benefit “lower- and middle-income workers.”

He went on to say that “the problem” with the idea is that “the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, ‘Read my lips,’ the fabled quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to cost him the Election.”

Mr. Trump was referring to President George H.W. Bush’s 1988 campaign promise of “read my lips: No new taxes.” He won that race, then failed to keep the promise, creating ammo for his political opponents ahead of his loss in 1992.

“In any event,” Mr. Trump said of the tax-the-rich idea, “Republicans should probably not do it,” but “I’m OK if they do.”

Mr. Trump’s public back-and-forth on the issue came after he reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, about adding a tax hike on the highest earners to a major spending bill Republicans want to pass this year.

That could be a sign that Mr. Trump, whose domestic agenda leans heavily on the passage of what he calls “one, big beautiful bill,” is willing to defy Republican orthodoxy on raising taxes.