Published April 12, 2025
Recent reports suggest President Donald Trump would be open to raising marginal tax rates on the wealthy. Congressional Republicans should take his offer up: it’s good policy and good politics.
The top federal marginal tax rate is currently only 37%. That’s low by international standards: most developed countries have top marginal rates exceeding 45%.
It’s true that the top marginal rate, including state and local income taxes, exceeds 50% in high-tax places such as California and New York City. But that’s the fault of the progressive Democrats who run those places, not the federal government. Wealthy people in Republican-governed states often pay low or no state income taxes, putting their top marginal rate well below international norms.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
