Colbert searches for ‘elite truckers’ who would benefit from Trump tax plan

“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert took aim on Thursday at President Trump’s proposal to end the estate tax, mocking the suggestion that doing so would benefit small business owners and the middle class — such as the truckers to whom Trump pitched it this week. 

Trump touted the GOP’s tax-reform plan in a speech in Harrisburg, Pa., on Wednesday that was attended by hundreds of truckers, contending that the tax applying to families that pass on assets to their children has crushed the nation’s small businesses. 

But Colbert, who has become one of Trump’s most vocal critics on late-night television, mocked the premise. Repealing the estate tax would only benefit about 30 of the nation’s 186,000 trucking companies, he said, citing a Washington Post column.

{mosads} 

“So who are these ‘elite truckers’ who are so concerned about millionaires’ estates?” Colbert asked, before introducing “Earl Danforth,” a cigarette-smoking trucker wearing French cuffs and a hat with the word “Caviar” scrawled across it.

“Finally we have a leader that understands what average truckers care about: passing our multi-millionaire estates on to our privileged offspring,” the trucker said. 

Trump and congressional Republicans have railed against the estate tax as an unfair penalty levied on individuals and couples who pass on their estates to their living family members. Doing away with it is a central part of the president’s tax proposal. 

The tax applies only to individuals with estates worth more than $5.49 million and couples with estates valued at more than $10.98 million, meaning that most people do not actually pay the tax when they pass on assets.