Hillary Clinton has shrugged off Donald Trump’s latest campaign shake-up, saying he is the “same man” who would cut taxes for rich people while she would force the super-wealthy to pay more.
The Democratic presidential nominee told a rally attended by more than 2,300 people in Cleveland: “Donald Trump doesn’t need a tax cut. I don’t need a tax cut.
“It’s time for the wealthiest Americans, whoever you are, as well as corporations and Wall Street to pay your fair share in taxes.”
Her remarks came shortly after Mr Trump, struggling to steady his troubled campaign, announced a new chief executive officer and campaign manager.
Polls show Mrs Clinton building a lead in the weeks since the summer nominating conventions.
At the rally, she suggested staffing changes will not fix her rival’s campaign or change his past insults of the Muslim American parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq, or incendiary comments about women and people with disabilities.
Mr Trump, she said, has “shown us who he is”.
“There is no new Donald Trump. This is it,” she added.
Even as she has struggled to address questions about her trustworthiness amplified by scrutiny of her use of a private email server at the State Department, Mrs Clinton has addressed the trust issues in other ways.
Popular surrogates, including Vice President Joe Biden this week in Pennsylvania, have testified to her trustworthiness.
Mrs Clinton has repeatedly pointed to Mr Trump’s unwillingness to release his income tax returns and said his tax policies would only help the rich.
She pledged again that she would not raise taxes on middle-class earners but Republicans noted that during her time in the Senate she had voted in favour of Democratic budget plans that would have raised taxes on American earning less than 250,000 US dollars a year.
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that Mrs Clinton’s tax plan would “kill jobs, reduce wages and hurt economic growth” and her prior Senate votes showed “she can’t be trusted to look out for the middle class”.
She has proposed a 4% surcharge on incomes of more than five million dollars, which would essentially create a new top bracket of 43.6% while those earning more than one million dollars annually would face a tax rate of at least 30%.
She has also pledged to eliminate the so-called “carried interest” loophole for private equity and hedge fund managers who pay lower rates on their investment profits.
Mr Trump wants to reduce the top bracket to 33% from the current level of 39.6% and would reduce the seven tax brackets down to three, at 12%, 25% and 33%.
The businessman would eliminate the estate tax, which is currently applied to estates worth more than 10.9 million dollars for married couples.
Mrs Clinton would increase the estate tax to 45% from the current 40% and apply it to estates of seven million dollars for married couples.
