President Donald Trump confirmed Aug. 20 that his administration is exploring additional economic stimulus in the form of payroll and capital gains tax cuts, but he said no action is imminent.
"We're looking at various tax reductions," Trump told White House reporters about a week after an inversion of the U.S. government bond yield curve stoked fears of a recession.
Trump said he has been considering slashing payroll taxes for "a long time" and that he is "certainly thinking about" indexing capital gains from asset sales to inflation.
But Trump said he is "not talking about doing anything at this moment" as he denied that any additional tax cuts would be made in response to an economic downturn.
"I'm looking at that all the time anyway — tax reductions," Trump said, adding that the U.S. economy is "very far" from a recession.
Trump also renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve and again called for interest rate cuts of at least 100 basis points.
"I think that we actually are set for a tremendous surge of growth, if the Fed would do its job," he said.
On the country's trade conflict with China, Trump signaled that tensions would not end soon. "Unless they're going to make the right kind of a deal, I'm not ready to make a deal," he said.
