Trump using pandemic to push broader agenda

U.S. president making a case for tighter borders, reviving tax deduction

President Donald Trump is taking an old political adage to heart: Never let a crisis go to waste.

The coronavirus is projected to kill more than 100,000 Americans. It has effectively shuttered the economy, torpedoed the stock market and rewritten the rules of what used to be called normal life.

But in this moment of upheaval, Trump and his advisers haven’t lost sight of the opportunity to advance his agenda.

Bringing back the entertainment tax deduction

Trump has called on Congress to revive the tax deduction for business-related expenses on meals and entertainment, arguing it would help bolster highend restaurants hammered by the outbreak.

Trump’s own tax law in 2017 sliced the tax rate for corporations from 35 to 21 per cent and eliminated the deduction.

“This is a great time to bring it back,” Trump said of the resurrecting the tax break. “Otherwise a lot of these restaurants are going to have a hard time reopening,” he said at White House briefing Wednesday.

Using virus to make case for tighter borders

Trump has repeatedly credited himself with moving in late January to bar entry from foreigners who had recently been in China.

The president later also ordered the temporary suspension of travel from much of Europe to the United States, and has largely closed the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.

But Trump has notably used the crisis to remind Americans about his 2016 campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S.Mexico border. He argues a wall would help contain the coronavirus. In a tweet last month, he said the structure is “Going up fast” and “We need the Wall more than ever!”

Leading public health experts disagree. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told lawmakers last month that he was unaware of any indication from his agency that physical barriers along America’s borders would help halt the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S.

Pandemic underscores need for protectionism, Trump says

Trump in recent days has grumbled that American companies such as 3M and GM are not doing enough to provide American medical workers and first responders with vital equipment they need.

But the president and his aides have also made a broader argument about the need for the country to retool regulations to encourage the manufacturing of medicine and other key safety equipment on American soil.

Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser to Trump, said the pandemic, which has left hospitals short of ventilators and protective masks, has underscored the president’s “buy American, secure borders, and a strong manufacturing base” philosophy.

“Never again should we have to depend on the rest of the world for our essential medicines and countermeasures,” Navarro said.