Donald Trump vows to restore homeowner tax break he scrapped

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Donald Trump has said he will reverse a pillar of his 2017 tax reform, as he courts suburban voters in Democratic strongholds such as New York and California with less than two months to go until November’s presidential election.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, the former president said he had a “real chance of winning” New York’s 28 Electoral College votes in November, and vowed to “get Salt back” and “lower your taxes”.

The comments were a reference to a long-standing practice where homeowners were able to deduct their state and local taxes, or “salt”, from their federal tax bills.

But Trump’s own 2017 tax changes — which slashed taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals — capped those deductions at $10,000 a year, in a blow to homeowners in high-tax cities and towns where local property taxes can average twice that level.

Now Trump has suggested he will make a U-turn on those changes, which were widely seen as punishing Democratic voters in traditionally blue states.

Trump’s promise marked a new attempt by the former president to woo suburban voters and came on the eve of a campaign rally on Long Island, about 30 miles, or roughly 50km, east of Manhattan.

The suburban sprawl surrounding New York City has some of the highest property tax rates in the country.

New York is not seen as a battleground state, and Trump lost it to Joe Biden in the 2020 election by more than 23 percentage points. A Siena College poll of likely voters in New York conducted over the summer gave Kamala Harris a 14-point lead over Trump in the state.

But congressional races in the New York suburbs could be critical for Republicans if they are to maintain control of the House of Representatives.

Voter concerns about crime and public safety helped Republicans flip four Democratic congressional seats in New York state in the 2022 midterms, a major shift that helped the party regain control of the lower chamber of Congress.

Democrats recaptured one seat in a special election earlier this year after the departure of Republican George Santos, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identify theft over the summer.