Donald Trump’s latest policy proposal, a program to pay for childcare expenses through tax deductions, applies equally to same-sex couples raising children.
The Trump campaign’s early outreach to reporters – including a Monday night outline of his Tuesday speech on the subject and a Tuesday morning conference call with reporters – made no mention of the subject.
Neither does an op-ed by his daughter Ivanka that ran Tuesday evening on the website of The Wall Street Journal.
And Trump himself skipped over it during a 20-minute speech introducing the proposal Tuesday night in a suburb of Philadelphia.
But a policy paper distributed two hours before the speech at a suburban Philadelphia community center includes a line acknowledging that gay and lesbian couples would be eligible for the same tax benefits as heterosexuals.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, unveiled a far-reaching childcare tax credit proposal on Tuesday with a wrinkle – equal treatment of same-sex parents – that could sideline his policy with evangelical conservatives
‘The benefits would be available in the same way that the IRS currently recognizes same-sex couples: if the marriage is recognized under state law, then it is recognized under federal law,’ the answer reads.
A landmark Supreme Court decision in 2015 effective legalized the institution of gay marriage in all 50 states, forcing state and local officials to issue marriage licenses to couples without discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.
Ivanka Trump’s op-ed boasted that ‘[m]y father is prepared to chart a new course that promotes strong families and celebrates their individual needs.’
Conservative evangelical groups were expected to hail Trump’s proposal, which also treats elder-care expenses as deductible, as a plan to support cash-strapped parents trying to raise sons and daughters in two-earner households.
But representatives from two such organizations, who requested anonymity in advance of official statements their leadership might make, said they were nervous about the policy’s implications.
‘It may be something other than what we first thought it was,’ one told DailyMail.com.
‘Trump talks about a Trojan horse with runaway immigration?’ another pondered. ‘This could be the same kind of thing with government policy that should be helping parents raise healthy, well-adjusted children.’
Two leaders of prominent Christian conservative groups declined to comment on the record.
