Trump tells billionaires he'll keep their taxes low at $50 million fundraising gala

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of extending his signature tax cuts to some of the nation’s wealthiest political donors, according to a readout of his private remarks Saturday night provided by a Trump campaign official.

“Trump spoke on the need to win back the White House so we can turn our country around, focusing on key issues including unleashing energy production, securing our southern border, reducing inflation, extending the Trump Tax Cuts, eliminating Joe Biden’s insane [electric vehicle] mandate, protecting Israel, and avoiding global war,” the campaign official said of a roughly 45-minute speech to donors in Palm Beach, Florida.

The campaign declined NBC News’ requests to have a reporter present for his remarks and to make a full transcript of them available.

Trump senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said the dinner, held at the home of billionaire hedge fund investor John Paulson, grossed $50.5 million for a joint fundraising effort benefiting Trump’s campaign, his Save America political action committee, the Republican National Committee and state parties. That’s nearly double the $26 million President Joe Biden’s campaign said it raised last month at a star-studded Radio City Music Hall gala featuring former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Biden hit Trump for promising to extend the 2017 tax cuts beyond 2025, when many of the provisions are set to expire, in a video released Saturday.

“When he thinks the cameras are not on, he tells his rich friends, quote, ‘We’re going to give you tax cuts,’” Biden says in the video as he stands with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a leading progressive who ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

Trump appeared to try to square raising a record-breaking amount of donations from the nation’s elite — a set that included billionaires such as sugar magnate José “Pepe” Fanjul Sr., oil baron Harold Hamm and Johnson & Johnson heir Woody Johnson — with a political movement fueled by populist themes.

“People are just wanting change,” he told reporters as he arrived at Paulson’s home. “The rich people want it. Poor people want it. Everybody wants change.”

During his remarks, Trump praised the assembled donors.

“We have expertise in this room that’s incredible — every one of you are leaders,” he said, according to the campaign official.

From the head table, Trump spoke for about 45 minutes to 117 guests seated under a giant tent, according to the campaign official. Afterward, they dined on endive and frisee salad, filet au poivre, and pavlova with fresh berries.

Several of Trump’s vanquished primary foes — Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — also addressed the crowd, as did Republican National Committee co-chairs Lara Trump and Michael Whatley, the official said.

Trump’s 2017 tax cut reduced income tax rates for the vast majority of Americans, including top earners and most lower-income workers. Many of its provisions are set to expire in 2025, including a break for owners of so-called pass-through businesses — entities that are not taxed because the profits flow through to the owners, who are individually taxed — that are favored by hedge funds, private equity partnerships and privately held companies. The liberal-leaning, nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated that extending the pass-through deduction would cost the government $700 billion in lost revenue over a decade.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com