Trump promises new tax relief for car loan interest and citizens living abroad

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump unveiled yet another set of targeted tax break proposals on Thursday, doling out more promises of relief as Election Day draws ever closer.

Speaking before the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday, Trump promised to make the interest paid on car loans fully tax deductible, similar to the popular existing deduction for mortgage interest. Michigan, home to many automakers, is a key swing state.

“This will stimulate massive domestic auto production and make car ownership dramatically more affordable for millions and millions of working American families,” he said, noting that many people in the audience work in the auto industry.

He also said he would formally notify Mexico and Canada upon taking office that he intends to invoke the six-year renegotiation provision of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was signed into law in January 2020 as a replacement for NAFTA.

Trump called his proposals a “detailed plan to save the American auto industry,” arguing that “you vote for Trump, and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing jobs, but from Mexico to Michigan, from Shanghai to Sterling Heights.”

He said the US was “stupid” for letting “powerful” companies “come in and raid and rape our country,” adding, “That’s what they did. Oh, he used the word rape. That’s right, I used the word. They raped our country.”

One tax expert questioned why Trump would limit the benefit just to car loans. Also, the move won’t benefit most Americans since they don’t itemize their deductions, said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

“The car interest thing is just more campaign pandering,” Gleckman said.

At the same time, Trump vowed to end the double taxation on Americans who live abroad, though he didn’t provide details on how such relief would work.

“Once and for all, I’m going to end double taxation on our overseas citizens,” he said in a video released Thursday.

Currently, some Americans living abroad must pay taxes to both the United States and to the country where they reside. But the amount they pay to a foreign government can be taken into account, and those who earn less than $126,500 owe no US taxes for 2024. Many other countries don’t levy taxes on their citizens who live elsewhere.

In the video, Trump asked those living abroad to join him.

“You have to make sure that you are registered, and you are going to vote because I’m going to take very good care of you,” he said. “You’ve been wanting this for years, and nobody has listened to you, and you deserve it, and I’m going to do it.”

These tax proposals are the latest in a string of costly tax cuts Trump has rolled out in recent months, many aimed at specific voting blocs whose support he is seeking. The former president has promised to eliminate taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay, as well as lift the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions – a limit he signed into a law as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. All these proposals, which would have to be approved by Congress, come on top of his promise to extend the expiring individual income and estate tax provisions of the 2017 tax cuts law, one of his signature achievements in his first term.

But these measures come with a hefty price tag – one that’s not covered by the increased tariffs he’s seeking to implement, experts say. All told, Trump’s platform would increase the national debt by $7.5 trillion over a decade, according to a recent estimate by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ policy package would raise the debt by $3.5 trillion, the committee found.

CNN’s Ali Main contributed to this report.

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