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    Trump Keeps the Tax Cut Promises Coming, Now for Americans Abroad

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    Former President Donald J. Trump suggested that he would try to reduce taxes for Americans living abroad, the latest in an expensive string of tax cuts he has promised to different voting groups during the presidential campaign.Americans who live outside the United States must still file tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. That means in some instances, Americans living abroad pay taxes to both the United States and a foreign government, creating so-called double taxation. Many other countries collect taxes from people living and working within their borders but not on their citizens living abroad.In a statement, which was provided earlier to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump said he would eliminate the practice. “I support ending the double taxation of overseas Americans!”But, as with many of Mr. Trump’s campaign tax pledges, it was unclear what exactly he envisions changing. Americans living in other countries don’t always owe taxes both there and in the United States. They can already discount taxes paid to another government from their U.S. tax bill, and those making less than $126,500 don’t owe anything to the I.R.S.Higher-income Americans living in countries with low taxes are more likely to owe additional taxes in the United States. Mr. Trump’s idea, depending on how it is ultimately drafted, could encourage wealthy Americans to move to tax havens overseas to avoid taxes.During his campaign, Mr. Trump has expressed support for a wide variety of seemingly simple, but potentially far-reaching, tax cuts aimed at specific groups of voters. He has said Social Security benefits should no longer be taxed, a bid for support from retirees, and suggested that tipped income and overtime pay should not be taxed, proposals that he has framed as benefits for working Americans.“Fellow Americans living abroad, your vote is more important than ever,” Mr. Trump said in the statement. “No matter where you are, your voice can make a difference.”Mr. Trump’s campaign promises come on top of the Republican goal to extend many of the tax cuts from his signature legislative achievement while president, a 2017 tax law. Many of those tax cuts expire after 2025. The cost of continuing those cuts is significant, and together all of Mr. Trump’s plans could cost $7.5 trillion over 10 years, according to a nonpartisan budget group.Mr. Trump has also repeatedly said he would raise tariffs on imports to the United States to pay for his tax cuts, which would effectively shift the country’s tax burden to lower-income Americans. Those Americans spend more of their money on consumer items that could get more expensive because of the tariffs.Vice President Kamala Harris has attacked Mr. Trump’s tax plans, arguing that they would amount to a giveaway to the rich. She has pledged to raise taxes on corporations and Americans making more than $400,000 a year. More

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      Oprah Winfrey Speaks at DNC, Revealing Short Film on the American Dream

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      Night 3 of the Democratic National Convention is not lacking for stars of the small screen: Mindy Kaling is the evening’s M.C., and the “Saturday Night Live” stalwart Kenan Thompson made a cameo.But the appearance of one television icon was kept under wraps until she stepped onstage to deafening cheers from her hometown crowd: Oprah Winfrey, the talk-show host turned billionaire media mogul who built her career in Chicago.The fact that Ms. Winfrey, an inspirational figure for many women and Black voters, appeared at all represented a feat by aides to Vice President Kamala Harris.The television star had never before spoken at a national convention. Her message of uplift and optimism is a neat fit for the themes that Democrats have sought to emphasize at this week’s jamboree. And as far as political campaigns go, she has carefully picked her battles, withholding the Oprah seal of approval for all but a few candidates.In 2007, Ms. Winfrey endorsed a presidential hopeful for the first time: Barack Obama, a close friend and a compatriot from Chicago’s power circles. Ms. Winfrey hosted fund-raisers and barnstormed cities in Iowa to round up votes for Mr. Obama, who at the time seemed a long shot to win the nomination.In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign sought to capitalize on Ms. Winfrey’s popularity by lobbying her for a full-throated endorsement. It never came. Ms. Winfrey mostly stayed away from politics that year, although she did tell one morning show interviewer, “I’m with her.”In 2018, Ms. Winfrey stirred speculation that she herself might seek the White House. A speech she delivered at the Golden Globes, where she was accepting a lifetime achievement award, was shared widely for its stirring delivery and approach to grand themes like sexism and racism in America.The conversation died down after Ms. Winfrey poured cold water on the idea of a run, but it highlighted the thirst among Democrats, in the midst of Donald J. Trump’s administration, for a media-savvy contender who could wave the party flag. More

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      Harris Appeals to Tech Leaders in a Return to San Francisco

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      A Sunday fund-raiser offered Vice President Kamala Harris a chance to turn the page on a sometimes frosty relationship between President Biden and Silicon Valley.Joe Biden who?Vice President Kamala Harris, whose political career was born in San Francisco two decades ago, on Sunday returned to the city for the first time since clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, hoping to reset relations with a tech community that has soured some on President Biden.It was a turning of the page and a homecoming all at once. Ms. Harris’s late-morning event raised $13 million from the region’s white-collar establishment that counts her as their own.But her trip was as much a rally as a fund-raiser, with about 700 people piling into the Grand Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill. On one of this city’s quintessentially brisk, foggy August mornings, these wealthy givers waited in a queue that snaked up the hill, an indignity that would be unheard-of at a typical fund-raiser at a cozy private home in Woodside or Menlo Park. (Some donors with a connection or two found a way, as they do, to skip the line.)As is often the case in the highly choreographed world of presidential fund-raising, where egos must be treated tenderly, there was a series of receptions before the fund-raiser (with blue, pink and green wristbands) that clearly delineated the pecking order of big donors and their influence. Ms. Harris dropped in on each one, in descending order of price and intimacy, as donors enjoyed peach mimosas and shrimp cocktails before her remarks in the grand ballroom.“This is a room full of dear, dear, dear friends,” she said, standing before a giant “Harris Walz” sign and four flags: two American and two California.Mr. Biden has struggled for financial support from the Bay Area dating to his 2020 presidential campaign, when his list of fund-raisers was heavy on Obama-era ambassadors but light on the billionaire leaders of the tech industry.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why Some of the Loudest Cheers for Trump Are Coming From Silicon Valley

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      Elon Musk, David Sacks, Marc Andreessen and other influential figures in technology have endorsed former President Donald Trump. How did the Democrats lose Silicon Valley? Or did they?If you read the headlines this week about Elon Musk, David Sacks, Marc Andreessen and other influential figures in technology moving to support former President Trump’s re-election, it appeared a sea change had taken place in Silicon Valley, long considered a Democrat hotbed.The loudest donors in Silicon Valley are promoting Trump at a time when the tech world as a whole is ascending in Washington, with billionaires using their ballooning wealth and media foothold to exert influence. Their voices are made all the more prominent amid the conspicuous neutrality of Big Tech leaders like the Google C.E.O. Sundar Pichai and the Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, who are possibly afraid of invoking Trump’s ire and employee backlash.It wasn’t always this way. But big technology’s relationship with government, once symbiotic, attracted new scrutiny from Silicon Valley’s libertarian masses after social media companies tamped down on misinformation, drawing accusations that they were ceding to an overstepping government.For some, the infractions were more personal. Musk was brushed off by President Biden over his anti-union stance and excluded from an electric vehicle event at the White House in 2021. Now Musk, who has voted for Democrats in the past and has said he created Tesla to help one of Biden’s biggest ambitions, preventing climate change, has become among the party’s biggest detractors.Then there are issues in California, like rising taxes and a crime wave in San Francisco; the anti-woke movement; and regulatory battles over antitrust, crypto, and artificial intelligence that have high stakes in Silicon Valley.The question now is whether Silicon Valley’s Trump boosters are heralding a larger shift in the tech world, or if they’re merely demonstrating that their voices are more powerful in politics than ever.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Elon Musk Allies Help Start Pro-Trump Super PAC

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      Some of Elon Musk’s closest friends have helped start a new super PAC meant to help former President Donald J. Trump, creating an avenue for Mr. Musk and his $250 billion fortune to potentially play a significant role in the 2024 presidential race.The group, America PAC, is likely to draw significant support from Mr. Musk, according to three people close to the group who spoke on the condition of anonymity; it is not confirmed whether he has already donated. The group’s founding donors span Mr. Musk’s social circle and include a tight-knit network of wealthy tech entrepreneurs who frequently finance one another’s startups, philanthropic projects and favored political candidates.Mr. Musk had not donated to the super PAC as of June 30, the end of the most recent disclosure period, according to a Monday filing with the Federal Election Commission. But his tilt to the right, especially in his commentary on his social media site X, has left Republicans hoping he will wade more into funding conservative candidates and causes. On Saturday, soon after Mr. Trump survived an assassination attempt, Mr. Musk went on X to issue a full-throated endorsement of the former president.The super PAC, according to three people close to the organization, is led in part by Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of the software company Palantir and a politically ambitious venture capitalist in Austin who serves as a political confidant to Mr. Musk. Mr. Lonsdale, the people say, has played a key role in fund-raising for the group in its opening weeks, encouraging his network of influential entrepreneurs to support the super PAC. His personal company donated $1 million to the group.The top early donors to America PAC include several powerful conservatives from the tech industry. Contributions include $1 million from Antonio Gracias, a private-equity mogul and a board director at SpaceX; $1 million from Ken Howery, an early executive at PayPal alongside Mr. Musk who served as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Sweden; and $500,000 from Shaun Maguire, an investor at Sequoia Capital who is close to Mr. Musk.The group has released few details about its operations and its strategy, other than that it has been running field and digital programs on behalf of the former president, mostly encouraging early and mail-in voting. People close to it say that a key operative is Dave Rexrode, a top political operative who most recently has served as a key ally to Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia. Mr. Rexrode did not respond to requests for comment in recent days.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Biden Trumpets Small Donors as Rich Backers Retreat

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      In a nationally broadcast interview on Monday, President Biden pushed back on rich Democrats who want him to end his re-election campaign, saying, “I don’t care what the millionaires think.”Small donors, he made clear, were coming through for him.But hours later, Mr. Biden joined a private call with his top donors and fund-raisers to reassure them. “It matters,” he told them of their support.The seemingly contradictory messages show the conundrum facing the president as he grapples with the fallout from his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump last month. In order to continue to fund his presidential campaign, Mr. Biden will most likely need the support of wealthy Democratic Party backers, but they have been among the loudest voices calling for him to end his bid for re-election.In trying to diffuse their opposition, Mr. Biden — a politician who has long relied on the party’s establishment to fund his campaign — has adopted a surprisingly populist anti-elite message that, in some ways, echoes Mr. Trump’s.Major donors are warning that the party will lose the White House and down-ballot races with Mr. Biden atop the ticket. A growing chorus of donors has been pushing — first quietly, then publicly — for him to step aside to allow a replacement nominee and threatening to withhold their cash unless that happens.While Mr. Biden’s campaign has continued to court wealthy Democrats, including working to schedule fund-raising receptions despite uncertain interest, the president has also publicly cast the backlash from major donors as a sign that he is sticking up for regular people against moneyed interests. But polls showing that many rank-and-file Democratic voters also have deep concerns about his age.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Supreme Court Upholds Trump-Era Tax Provision

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      The tax dispute, which was closely watched by experts, involved a one-time foreign income tax, but many saw it as a broader challenge to pre-emptively block Congress from passing a wealth tax.The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a tax on foreign income that helped finance the tax cuts President Donald J. Trump imposed in 2017 in a case that many experts had cautioned could undercut the nation’s tax system.The vote was 7 to 2, with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh writing the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and the court’s three liberals. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.The question before the justices appeared narrow at first glance: Is the tax in question allowed under the Constitution, which gives Congress limited powers of taxation?In the majority opinion, Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the tax fell within the authority of Congress under the Constitution.Many tax experts had warned that striking down the tax could have wide repercussions. Such a move could have threatened to fundamentally change how income is defined, block efforts to tax billionaires’ wealth and undermine enforcement for all sorts of other taxes, which amount to billions in revenue for the government.Among the defenders of the law was Paul Ryan, the Republican and former House speaker who helped write the legislation. Upending the tax, Mr. Ryan said, could endanger up to a third of the U.S. tax code. He joined the Biden administration and some other conservatives in seeking to keep the law intact.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      East Hampton Locals Rally Against Zero Bond

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      Scott Sartiano proposed bringing his Manhattan-based members-only hot spot, Zero Bond, to a historic village inn. Local residents are not rolling out the red carpet.Whether it’s complaints about air traffic at the East Hampton airport, teenagers partying on the beach or the arrival of Uber and Lyft drivers, the controversies that dominate the news cycle on the East End of Long Island, N.Y., are usually about one thing: noise — and who, in a place where residents are used to getting nearly everything they want, is allowed to make it.This summer, media fireworks are popping over Zero Bond, the members-only club in Lower Manhattan that is attempting to open an outpost here four years after it became the ne plus ultra of downtown status spots — the place Page Six wrote about because it was where Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson had their second date, where Gigi Hadid celebrated her 27th birthday, where Elon Musk hosted his after party for the Met Gala and where Eric Adams made himself at home during his 2021 mayoral campaign.Much like that of a Birkin bag, Zero Bond’s appeal is due (at least in part) to how difficult it is to gain access. As its founder, Scott Sartiano, has said, “You can’t buy cool.”Although having money helps: After submitting an application, a suggested letter of recommendation from a current member and a headshot, anyone who wishes to join the club must also pay a onetime initiation fee and yearly dues, which increase with the age of the applicant. (Those under 28 pay a $750 onetime fee and $2,750 annually; those over 45, a $5,000 initiation fee and $4,400 annually.)The Stephen Talkhouse, in Amagansett, has hosted shows by the likes of Jon Bon Jovi and Jimmy Buffett (who tended bar during a Coldplay performance).Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SiriusXMMr. Sartiano’s efforts to establish his private club in a centuries-old building known as the Hedges Inn, currently a 13-room luxury bed-and-breakfast, have been widely reported. But while he is said to be negotiating to lease the property, even town officials do not have confirmation of whether an agreement has been signed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More