On Fox & Friends, Trump claimed unchallenged that Obama plans to have "everybody ... pay double and triple the taxes"

Summary: During an appearance on Fox & Friends, Donald Trump claimed, "The worst thing that can happen [in this economy] is everybody has to pay double and triple the taxes, and that's what [Sen. Barack] Obama is looking to do." Fox & Friends co-hosts did not challenge Trump's claim, even though it is false. Obama has proposed cutting taxes for low- and middle-income families and raising taxes only on households earning more than $250,000 per year in income.

During the August 27 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Donald Trump, "Donald, when you go out to your all-mogul lunches and dinners, when you sit around with the other people who have ... where they're very successful, what do they say? Who is the better president, with the better philosophy and principles for you? Who's going to make you richer? Who's going to make the country better?" Trump, executive producer and host of NBC's The Apprentice, responded: "I think from a business standpoint, they like [Sen. John] McCain because they like his taxing policies. This is a very fragile economy. It's an economy that's not doing well. The worst thing that can happen is everybody has to pay double and triple the taxes, and that's what [Sen. Barack] Obama is looking to do." Trump's claim went unchallenged by the Fox & Friends hosts, even though his assertion that Obama has proposed that "everybody ... pay double and triple the taxes" is false.

In fact, Obama has proposed cutting taxes for low- and middle-income families and raising taxes only on households earning more than $250,000 per year in income; McCain's own chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, has reportedly said it is inaccurate to say that "Barack Obama raises taxes," as Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted. In a recent analysis of the candidates' tax plans, the Tax Policy Center (TPC) estimated that Obama's tax plan would lead to an average tax cut of 0.6 percent in 2009, and 3.4 percent in 2012, when all elements would be in effect. For the top 1 percent of income earners, TPC estimated that their tax burden would increase by 7 percent in 2009, by 1.5 percent in 2012, as measured against current law. The TPC analysis noted, "Obama would give larger tax cuts to low- and moderate-income households and pay some of the cost by raising taxes on high-income taxpayers. In contrast, McCain would cut taxes across the board and give the biggest cuts to the highest-income households."

In response to Trump's false claim, co-host Steve Doocy said: "All right, Donald, before you go, you've got to tell us about The Celebrity Apprentice."

From the August 27 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

KILMEADE: Donald, when you go out to your all-mogul lunches and dinners, when you sit around with the other people who have --

DOOCY: The mogulteria.

KILMEADE: Yeah, the mogulteria -- where they're very successful, what do they say? Who is the better president, with the better philosophy and principles for you?

TRUMP: Well, I think from a business --

KILMEADE: Who's going to make you richer? Who's going to make the country better?

TRUMP: I think from a business standpoint, they like McCain because they like his taxing policies. This is a very fragile economy. It's an economy that's not doing well. The worst thing that can happen is everybody has to pay double and triple the taxes, and that's what Obama is looking to do. So, it's really -- that would be a big, big problem for the economy. There's no question about it.

DOOCY: All right, Donald, before you go, you've got to tell us about The Celebrity Apprentice.

—J.H.