Trump to stage Tax Day event in Minnesota

President Trump on Monday will travel to Minnesota for a Tax Day event, as he seeks to make his tax-cut law a political asset for his 2020 reelection campaign.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the trip to reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday as the president traveled to Texas for political fundraisers and an infrastructure event.

Sanders did not provide further details about the event. April 15 is the tax filing deadline.

{mosads}Trump hopes to win Minnesota in 2020 as part of an effort to repeat his strong showing in Midwestern and Rust Belt states. He has touted the economy, the tax-cut law and his efforts to broker new trade agreements as issues that will help him win in those regions.

But a new poll released this week showed many Americans do not believe they are benefiting from the Republican tax law passed in 2017, suggesting Trump faces an uphill battle convincing Americans the law is good for them.

Just 17 percent of respondents said they think they will pay less in taxes under the new law, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Twenty-eight percent said they believe they will pay more and more than half said their tax bill will be roughly the same or don’t know.

Trump lost Minnesota to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by just under 45,000 votes, the closest presidential election in the state since 1984. Minnesota has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972.

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party also criticized Trump and said he would not receive a warm welcome in the state.

“The tax scam Donald Trump will be trumpeting was a massive giveaway to the rich and powerful, paid for on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the young, and families in need,” party chairman Ken Martin said in a statement.

The event also comes amid a pitched battle between the White House and congressional Democrats over Trump’s decision to break with custom and refuse to release his tax returns. 

Trump on Wednesday repeated his assertion he will not release his returns while under audit, bucking a Wednesday deadline set by House Democrats for the Treasury Department to turn over six years of his returns under an obscure law.