I’m pretty sure it’s because he has a hard-on for the gilded age when McKinley was president and virtually all federal income was from tariffs rather than income tax. Trump wants to get rid of income tax altogether, for what I trust are obvious reasons, and replace that revenue with taxation on those who buy products, meaning tariffs. Rich people and corporations will pay essentially no taxes at all, but if you want to buy a car, an appliance, a home, or even food, the price will be jacked up to cover the tariffs he’s implementing.

It was the Gilded Age, a time of rapid population growth and transformation from an agricultural economy toward a sprawling industrial system, when poverty was widespread while barons of phenomenal wealth, like John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, held tremendous sway over politicians who often helped boost their financial empires.

“We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913. That’s when we were a tariff country. And then they went to an income tax concept,” Trump said days after taking office. “It’s fine. It’s OK. But it would have been very much better.”