Aides explore whether Trump can cut taxes.

WASHINGTON — White House officials have explored whether President Donald Trump has the power to sidestep Congress and unilaterally cut a broad swath of taxes as the president looks for ways to inject fuel into a slumping economy, a senior administration official said.

While such a move is not imminent, Trump’s advisers have sought legal guidance from White House lawyers about whether the president has the authority to eliminate certain taxes, including income and business taxes, without the approval of Congress.

The discussions about how much power the president can wield over tax policy come as Trump prepares to delay payroll taxes for some workers until the end of the year.

But unlike that move, which simply defers what workers owe until some point in the future, the White House is discussing whether the president actually can eliminate taxes owed by businesses, workers and investors.

The legality of such a move is widely seen as dubious, but Trump hasn’t been shy about pushing the boundaries of his authority.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to set tax policy, and lawmakers likely would object to any attempt to bypass their authority. But the executive branch does have wide latitude to enact regulations regarding tax collection. And it can defer taxes, as it did with the payroll tax and with the three-month delay of the traditional April 15 tax filing deadline.

“They clearly can delay pretty much anything for a year,” said Daniel Hemel, a tax law professor at the University of Chicago.

But Trump, who faces a tough reelection campaign amid a sputtering economy, has made clear he wants to do much more than just delay taxes — and that another big tax cut will be a central part of his pitch for a second term.

Getting such a tax cut through Congress would be tough, particularly if Democrats retain control of the House.

“We’re looking very seriously at a capital gains tax cut and also at an income tax cut for middle-income families,” Trump said at the White House on Monday evening. “We’re looking at expanding the tax cuts that we’ve already done, but specifically for middle-income families, and you’ll be hearing about that in the upcoming few weeks.”

Trump and his advisers have regularly considered unorthodox tax maneuvers that they believe would spur economic growth, including reducing the taxes that investors pay on profits earned from selling assets such as stocks or bonds.

Trump long has said he has the authority to reduce so-called capital gains taxes by indexing those profits to inflation, which essentially would reduce both the gains and the tax owed on the sale of assets.

A Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment on internal discussions about additional tax cuts. A White House spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.