UNU Swarms offer new insights into Trump’s Tax Returns and Budget Proposals

Over the course of a contentious Presidential campaign, one issue seemed to sully Donald Trump’s candidacy more than any other. Trump, the real estate mogul, broke with decades’ worth of political tradition when he refused to release his tax returns. But running the country is a very different beast than running a campaign, and now that Trump is in office, researchers here at Unanimous A.I. are seeing indications that those tax returns aren’t nearly as important as the media – and to be fair, the candidates themselves – may have led us to believe.

Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow released a portion Trump’s 2005 tax returns. But, rather than showing that Trump had paid little or no taxes ( as Clinton indicated on the debate stage ), the public learned that Trump had paid $38 million in taxes on his $150 million income that year. To find out how the American electorate felt about those numbers, Unanimous researchers turned to a swarm composed Americans of voting age asked them to consider Trump’s returns in comparison to Barack Obama’s 2015 returns. Working together in UNU, which uses our Swarm A.I. technology to amplify the intelligence of groups, it was revealed that voters felt that Trump’s 25% tax rate and Barack Obama’s 15% tax rate were both “fair” and, if anything, President Trump probably paid too much in taxes as a private citizen.

That revelation is a far cry from the rhetoric of the campaign, when Trump was called “unAmerican” for proudly admitting that he sought to minimize his tax burden. Of course, Trump’s decision to explain that strategy in his typically blunt style – “not paying taxes makes me smart” – fanned the flames, and our research also revealed that American’s aren’t willing to let Trump off the hook completely.

Still, the higher priority for many Americans is how Trump’s financial decisions impact their taxes, not his own. So when the new President released his budget proposal earlier this week, voters were eager to see how they would be affected. The comprehensive document outlined a system for prioritizing funding across the federal government, and our researchers were interested to see what the UNU swarm would find to love and hate among some of the most high priority items.

As you can see, it’s easy for the swarm to get behind any proposal that increases funding for our veterans. There’s been much discussion of the fact that the United States spends more on the military than the next seven countries combined, but clearly once someone has served their country, our research shows that Americans are happy to support them in return.

Much controversial are Trump’s proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump drew fire early in his campaign when he appointed Scott Pruitt, a man had sued the EPA 14 times, to be its new leader. And now that President Trump’s budget proposal has made reality of those rumored cuts, our Swarm A.I. technology reveals that this move might cause significant backlash.

Four years is a long time to spend in the Oval Office, and if Trump’s first few months have been nothing if not predictably unpredictable. But, ongoing research at Unanimous shows that while some things are constant, like support for our veterans and a belief in the importance of the environment, issues like the importance of the President’s full disclosure of his tax returns will ebb and flow over time.

Got a question for UNU, or just want to keep up to date with the Swarm’s insights? Drop us a line…