Thomas Barrack: 'We're All Prisoners Within the Tax Code'

Can Trump help put Americans back to work?

Continue Reading Below

Can Trump help put Americans back to work?

Thomas Barrack, Billionaire Trump Supporter and Ralph Lauren Model Nacho Figueras on why Donald Trump will be able to diminish the national debt and put people back to work.

During an interview on the FOX Business Network, Thomas Barrack, CEO of Colony Capital and friend of Donald Trump, shared what he will talk about in his speech.

“This election is about the man, not really the messenger,” he said. “Since I’m friends with Donald, I can talk about his personal attributes and what I see in a person, and most importantly, that I can take issue with him. This is not about negatives. I have nothing negative to say about Hillary [Clinton] because the attributes that Donald brings and the change says it all on its own.”

He added: “So the election is about status quo versus disruption. And that’s really the issue—what kind of guy is this really underneath it. I’ve known him for 40 years, I’ve watched him through it all and he’s much better than his billing. And we don’t ever have to go to the negatives.”

Continue Reading Below

Barrack said one of the most important subjects to focus on is getting Americans back to work.

“The average guy can no longer exist with the status quo,” he said. “And the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. And we’ve evaporated the middle class.”

The billionaire investor believes “we’re all prisoners within the tax code” and that more wealthy Americans would contribute more in federal taxes if they knew where the money was going.

“We have $19 trillion in debt, Bretton Woods has done away with the gold standard, there’s nothing to support it. The only way out of debt is if you default, you grow out of it or you restructure it and in the meantime I’m paying for wars I don’t want to be in, my kids can’t go to public school, I have to use emergency rooms for healthcare and I have a Social Security system that’s bankrupt. So it’s not about the people, it’s about the system,” Barrack said.

He added: “And to have a warrior come from the outside like Donald say, ‘I’m just going to chip away at it. So you can say I’m not equipped because I haven’t been there on things like tax policy'—he will find the best-of-class people who are not of the system, but can infiltrate the system.”