Trump: Tax bill on his desk by Thanksgiving

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump raised expectations Sunday about Republicans’ timetable for completing tax reform, indicating he expects the as-yet unwritten overhaul of the tax code on his desk by Thanksgiving.

“I want to get it by the end of the year, but I’d be very disappointed if it took that long,” he said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.” He said lawmakers should forgo their Thanksgiving break if they can’t send him a measure by then.

Republican leaders have painted an optimistic picture of the overhaul’s chances, saying they hope to have it done by the end of the year. But many predict a 2018 vote, particularly with Mr. Trump’s abrupt addition of several issues to their agenda.

The tax plan Republican leaders and the White House have laid out calls for reducing tax rates on corporations from 35 percent to 20 percent, and consolidating individual tax rates to 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and possibly one higher bracket for the wealthy. Income brackets for those rates have yet to be set.

Actual text of a tax overhaul bill hasn’t been written yet. Members of Congress haven’t reached consensus on what cuts to make or where to make them. Mr. Trump signaled that tweaks are still being made.

The president, who had a telephone call with House GOP members Sunday to offer encouragement and urge them to move quickly, confirmed in the Fox interview that Republicans are considering adding a tax bracket for the rich to their plan, saying it would provide a bigger benefit for the middle class.

Condolences kerfuffle

Rep. Frederica Wilson, DFla., on Sunday called White House Chief of Staff John Kelly “a puppet of the president” and said he should apologize for having made false claims about her while defending Mr. Trump’s military condolence calls.

The pointed words came on another day of sparring between Ms. Wilson and the White House after her criticism last week of Mr. Trump’s call to the widow of one of four service members killed in an ambush in Niger. During an appearance Thursday in which he defended Mr. Trump’s calls, Mr. Kelly called Ms. Wilson an “empty barrel” and falsely asserted that she had claimed credit in a 2015 speech for securing funding for a federal building.

Climate change website

The Environmental Protection Agency has removed dozens of online resources dedicated to helping local governments address climate change, part of an apparent effort by the agency to play down the threat of global warming.