Trump whips up CPAC with 'massive' tax cut pledge, Mexico wall timetable
President Donald Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference he would "massively" lower taxes for America's middle classes as well as trimming business taxes, while also pledging to begin undoing his predecessor's 'Obamacare' healthcare laws in coming months.
Speaking to CPAC's assembled Republican party activists in his surprise speech to the conference on Friday, Trump proclaimed that the party would from now on become the political party of the American worker, while also launching further attacks on his facvourite targets of the media and immigration numbers.
"We’re going to massively lower taxes on the middle class, reduce taxes on American businesses and make our tax code more simple,” he said, having in his campaign called for a 15% corporate tax rate.
In the type of speech which became Trump's forte during his run to the White House, he presented a vision of a future US which will be "going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before", with the crowd soon whipped up into chants of 'USA! USA!'.
"America is coming back. It's going to be bigger and better. It's roaring. It's going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before," Trump said.
"There is no dream too large no task too great..." -@POTUS #CPAC #CPAC2017 https://t.co/OCI3xhjKu0
— CPAC 2017 (@CPAC) February 24, 2017
He added that construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border is "going to start soon - way ahead of schedule" and said the unpicking of Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would come “sometime in early March, mid-March”.
Rounding on the media, the populist plutocrat said the press should not be allowed to use anonymous sources, a restriction on free speech Trump is not thought to have publicly made before. “You will see stories dry up like you have never seen before,” he said.
US stocks have gained record highs in the months following Trump's victory, and appear to be recovering from early losses on Friday.
"The morning sell-off has been reversed to some extent, as a surprise speech from President Donald Trump once again brings up the topics of wall-building, stimulus programmes and tax reform," said IG analyst Chris Beauchamp. "US markets in particular have recovered most of the losses sustained in the immediate aftermath of the open."