Bizarrely, the State Department and Interior Department just commented on Trump's tax plan

(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

published 30 August 2017

Almost as soon as President Trump wrapped up his tax reform speech Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin issued a statement praising the plan. But then, inexplicably, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke also weighed in on the fiscal strategy.

Tillerson, the nation's top diplomat, hailed Trump's very domestic tax reform plan as a "vital measure for strengthening U.S. prosperity as well as global prosperity through investment and job creation." The second sentence of the statement preemptively pledged that the State Department would "continue to engage in economic diplomacy to bolster the prosperity of our nation through increased investment and trade," perhaps in an effort to explain why the State Department was issuing a statement about tax reform in the first place.

Though Zinke's domain is federal lands and natural resources, he too couldn't help but comment on how great Trump's tax reform plan would be for the American people. "The president's proposal would allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, allowing them to invest in their and their children's futures and also support and grow the economy," Zinke said. He tied the whole statement back to the Interior Department by claiming that Trump's tax reforms would mean Americans "will have more money in their pockets" to spend on trips to national parks, and that businesses would have more money to "invest in our public lands."