The speech itself was light on specifics, a fact that administration officials acknowledged in previewing it for reporters earlier this week. Still, the president made clear enough who stands to win if a bill ever reaches his desk. As Michael Bender and Richard Rubin of the Wall Street Journal write:

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Mr. Trump, a Republican, said he wants to lower business-tax rates to 15% and make it easier for companies to repatriate foreign profits, saying the moves will boost the middle class. But he offered few other details in a 35-minute speech that laid out general principles and flaws in the current system… Although the president has called for doubling the standard deduction, the administration’s vagueness on other tax provisions important to middle-income households makes it hard to calculate how a typical family would benefit; he didn’t offer any such details on Wednesday.

Instead, Trump relied on some bank-shot logic — some might called it trickle-down — that easing the tax burden on businesses of all sizes will encourage them to invest more in their operations, including their workers, who’d see wages rise faster. The economics of that argument are questionable. As Politico's Brian Faler notes:

Most economists say companies’ shareholders would be the primary beneficiaries of a corporate tax rate cut. That’s because it would make companies more profitable, which would boost their stock price while also leaving them with more money to pay out dividends. The official Joint Committee on Taxation, as well as the Treasury Department and the independent Tax Policy Center, all say shareholders bear roughly three-quarters of the burden of the corporate tax, and therefore would be the main winners were it cut.

The politics of it are unquestionably bad. CNBC’s John Harwood makes the case:

First, Trump lately has been touting the robust health of American business. "Corporations have NEVER made as much money as they are making now," the president tweeted on August 1. Second, most Americans want corporations taxed more, not less. In that April Gallup survey, 67 percent of Americans said corporations pay "too little" in taxes, while just 9 percent said "too much.” … [Republican] plans smack headlong into public opinion, just as their failed attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare did.

The White House earlier this month decided to delegate the task of ironing out policy details to the tax-writing committees in Congress, taking on for itself the assignment of selling the overall package.

And the Wednesday address served as a dry-run for the strategy the administration intends to pursue: The president will hit the trail to drum up popular support and needle lawmakers to fall in line while Cabinet secretaries step out as surrogates to sell the plan’s benefits to everyday Americans.

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(Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke released a statement after the speech saying tax cuts will allow more Americans to visit national parks; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called it “a vital measure for strengthening U.S. prosperity as well as global prosperity through investment and job creation.”)

Watch Trump's speech in its entirety here:

But Trump kicks off the sales job with his approval numbers scraping new lows. He finished last week with a 35 percent approval rating in the Gallup Daily tracking poll, his lowest yet. A Fox News survey out Wednesday also showed voter attitudes souring, with 56 percent of respondents saying Trump is “tearing the country apart.” A focus group that drew together Pittsburgh voters from across the partisan spectrum returned similarly savage reviews for the president.

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Closer to home, the potential for a win on taxes may be one of the last forces holding the Republican governing coalition together. Yet the scars of Trump’s long summer of battles with congressional Republicans were evident in the Wednesday speech.

“I am fully committed to working with Congress to get this job done,” he said at one point. “And I don’t want to be disappointed by Congress, do you understand me? Do you understand? Understand? Congress. I think Congress is going to make a comeback. I hope so. Tell you what, the United States is counting on it.”

As my colleagues Damian Paletta and John Wagner write, the comments left “little doubt where he would place blame if this effort also fails” — a discouraging signal to GOP lawmakers facing potentially difficult votes ahead.

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The business class is also helping stoke a tax overhaul's urgency. Though there are signs their confidence in its success may be waning.

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Market players shrugged off Trump’s speech Wednesday: Stocks closed modestly higher on the day but actually lost steam in the late afternoon after the address. Corporate earnings calls offer a stronger hint that investors have started pricing out hope for action.

Tax cuts have dominated the policy discussions on calls this year, according to an analysis out today from Hamilton Place Strategies. But the firm’s look at roughly 3,000 call transcripts found interest in the subject has also dropped steeply. While 72 percent of calls for fourth quarter 2016 results mentioned taxes, only 45 percent did for calls on second quarter 2017 results.



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TRUMP TRACKER

— RUSSIA WATCH: A handful of stories breaking Wednesday convey the collective impression that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe is gaining traction.

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Mueller has teamed up with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in his investigation of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his financial history , Politico's Josh Dawsey It also could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump’s campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes .The two teams have shared evidence and talked frequently in recent weeks about a potential case, these people said. One of the people familiar with progress on the case said both Mueller’s and Schneiderman’s teams have collected evidence on financial crimes, including potential money laundering." No charges are imminent, a person familiar with the case tells Dawsey. , Politico's Josh Dawsey reports : "The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into [Trump’s] former campaign chairman is intensifying..The two teams have shared evidence and talked frequently in recent weeks about a potential case, these people said. One of the people familiar with progress on the case said both Mueller’s and Schneiderman’s teams have collected evidence on financial crimes, including potential money laundering." No charges are imminent, a person familiar with the case tells Dawsey.

Manafort's work for Kremlin-backed interests appears to have been more extensive and longer-running than he's acknowledged , the Wall Street Journal's Brett Forrest , the Wall Street Journal's Brett Forrest reports . And his efforts frequently involved work for a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska: "The work by Mr. Manafort ... across Eastern Europe, as well as his links to Mr. Deripaska, help explain why he is of such interest to investigators probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Congressional investigators looking into Mr. Manafort’s business and political connections want to know more about his history with Mr. Deripaska, according to people with knowledge of the probes. Mr. Deripaska has offered to give testimony about alleged Russian meddling in the election to the House and Senate intelligence committees in exchange for immunity, according to officials with knowledge of the matter."

Rinat Akhmetshin, the lobbyist who met with Donald Trump, Jr. and other campaign aides in Trump Tower last summer, testified before the grand jury earlier this month , the Financial Times , the Financial Times reports . Akhmetshin spent several hours under oath laying out details of the meeting.

Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, has given lawmakers a point-by-point rebuttal of allegations about his Russian ties that appeared in the dossier, the New York Times' Maggie Haberman and Matt Apuzzo , the New York Times' Maggie Haberman and Matt Apuzzo report : "Mr. Cohen encouraged lawmakers to investigate those who paid for the salacious 35-page dossier, which surfaced online early this year and alleges that President Trump and his campaign conspired with Russia in the November election. The dossier, compiled by a retired British spy, portrays Mr. Cohen as a central figure in the conspiracy... Mr. Cohen produced records to Congress this week, including a series of emails he had received in 2015 from Felix Sater, a real estate broker with ties to the Kremlin."

— Reporters watching Trump's tax speech fact-checked it in real-time (while The Post's Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee did so here). Some highlights:

From the New York Times's Jonathan Weisman:

Trump raised some eyebrows by appearing to snub Gary Cohn at the beginning of the speech, when he acknowledged administration officials pitching in on the tax overhaul. The economic adviser is said to be on thin ice after criticizing Trump's Charlottesville response in an FT interview last week. A White House spokeswoman waved off any larger significance behind the omission, saying “Staff is typically not called out in prepared remarks, only Cabinet members.”

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MARKET MOVERS

— The economy grew by 3 percent in the second quarter, its fastest pace in two years. The growth far outpaced the first quarter's lackluster 1.2 percent rate, though it still lags Trump's stated 4 percent goal, the New York Times' Nelson D. Schwartz writes: "Mr. Trump talked up the latest figures in a speech on Wednesday in Springfield, Mo., laying out his plans for tax overhaul. Despite nearly uniform skepticism from mainstream economists, he insisted that much faster economic growth was within reach...

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"There are several reasons that his goal is probably far-fetched, namely the country’s aging workforce and slower population growth than in the past. Combine that with low productivity growth, and hitting Mr. Trump’s target begins to look like a Sisyphean challenge. The president also suggested that other economies overseas were growing at two or three times the American rate... No major Western economy is growing close to that rate — and none has in years. The fastest-growing large economy, China’s, grew 6.7 percent last year."

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— House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-S.C.) said Wednesday his group will back a short-term extension of government funding even if it leaves out money for Trump's border wall.

Meadows is a Trump ally, so the stance could signal Trump's willingness to at least postpone a fight over wall funding, Politico's Kyle Cheney and Sarah Ferris report: "Meadows' comments makes it more likely that a congressional showdown over a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico will be put off until December, when Congress is expected to revisit measures to fund the government. Meadows’ comments suggest Trump may have to resign himself to waiting three months to fight for wall funding. He suggested earlier this month that he is prepared for a showdown over paying for the wall, even if it were to lead to a government shutdown."

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MONEY ON THE HILL

— BREAKING, from the Wall Street Journal: "Harvey Flooding Sparks Explosions at Texas Chemical Plant:"

Two explosions rocked a Texas chemical plant early Thursday, hours after the facility’s owner urged residents and others to stay away. Industrial chemicals manufacturer Arkema SA had said that heavy flooding and the loss of power in the wake of Tropical Storm Harvey had hobbled critical refrigeration at the plant, making an explosion likely. The area around the plant was cleared Wednesday after the company warned it had no way to prevent such an emergency. Arkema said early Thursday it had been notified of two explosions, and said black smoke was coming from the plant in Crosby, Texas, some 25 miles northeast of Houston. The Harris County Sheriff’s office said on its verified Twitter account that one deputy had been taken to the hospital after inhaling fumes from the plant and nine others drove themselves to the hospital as a precaution.

— Trump could seek Harvey recovery funds from Congress as soon as next week. The Post reports: "The funding package is expected to only be a partial down payment and serve in part to backstop depleted reserves that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had on hand to respond to disasters. No final decision on the funding request has been made and it could fluctuate based on conversations with lawmakers."

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) said Wednesday the state could need more than $125 billion in federal funds, Reuters reports. That sum is what the federal government doled out after Hurricane Katrina, and Abbott says Harvey's scope exceeded that of the storm that ravaged New Orleans in 2005.

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THE REGULATORS

— Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has once again sidestepped questions about his possible political ambitions from his lead antagonist in Congress, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.). Hensarling has been pressing Cordray to address whether he intends to jump into the 2018 race for Ohio governor, and if so, whether he's been rushing out CFPB rules to pad his resume in the meantime. Cordray in a Wednesday letter to Hensarling, rejected the claim— and played coy about his plans, per Reuters' Pete Schroeder.

— The Trump administration has blocked an Obama-era rule requiring employers to report information breaking down worker pay by gender and race. Reuters' Daniel Wiessner reports: "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission adopted the requirements last year under President Barack Obama, saying the information was necessary to identify and address discriminatory wage gaps. But the White House Office of Management and Budget in a memo on Tuesday said the rule was burdensome to companies and could pose privacy and confidentiality issues. The rule would have required businesses to begin reporting the information in March 2018. Currently, employers must report about 130 different categories of wage data to the EEOC each year. Under the new rule, they would have been required to report more than 3,300 categories."

POCKET CHANGE

THE FUNNIES

Here's a novel solution to the Confederate statue debate, from Bloomberg View columnist Noah Smith:

DAYBOOK

Today

The Brookings Institution holds an event on “Building a secure and inclusive global financial ecosystem.”

Coming Up

Congress returns to Washington September 5.

The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications holds a hearing on the future of FEMA on September 6.

The Urban Institute and Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center hold a discussion on “Tax Policy and the Immigrant Experience” on September 7.

The National Economists Club holds a discussion on "What Will Make Economics Professors Succeed or Fail in the Future? The Discipline at a Crossroads” on September 7 .

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan on September 7. The New York Times hosts the first event in its TimesTalks D.C. series featuringon

BULL SESSION

President Trump calls for reform of 'self-destructive tax code':

Trump says he doesn't want to be 'disappointed by Congress' in tax reform effort:

President Trump told Missourians to vote out Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) if she doesn't lower taxes:

President Trump tells Houston 'we will be with you every single day after' the storm:

Texas stores accused of price-gouging essential supplies in wake of Harvey: