When he was running for president last year, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to close the carried-interest loophole for most Wall Street billionaires, including the vast majority of private-equity and real-estate fund managers.
As president, he appears to be breaking that vow. As Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin explained in an appearance with Senator Mitch McConnell last month, the administration will instead keep the loophole open for funds that “create jobs.” This amounts to a loophole for the loophole, and parrots the widely discredited talking points of lobbyists for the private-equity industry (the people who benefit from the carried-interest loophole) who claim the funds create jobs. In reality, the funds are responsible for layoffs nearly as often as they are for job creation.
