Donald Trump says he's 'unbeatable' in 2020 on tax cut, stock rally

WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) - President Donald Trump, fresh off a victory in the Senate that puts him a step closer to passing a huge tax-cut Bill by year-end, and with the US stock market near record highs, declared himself "unbeatable" for 2020.

"Unless they have somebody that we don't know about, right now we're unbeatable," Trump said on Saturday (Dec 2) at a Trump Victory Fund finance breakfast in New York City.

Trump said, without elaboration, that "new numbers just came out" backing up his assessment of the electoral landscape. The White House and the Republican National Committee didn't immediately respond to questions on the numbers the President was referring to.

"One of the reasons is what's happening with the markets, what's happening with business, what's happening with jobs," Trump told about 450 attendees at the midtown restaurant Cipriani - the first of three fundraising events for the day that are expected to raise about US$6 million (S$8 million).

Trump also said that the rise in many people's 401k balances in line with the stock market's surge to record highs would make a good campaign line.

He recounted an anecdote that occurred backstage, before Saturday's event: "One great gentleman came up and he said, 'Sir, I want to thank you.' I said, 'What did I do for you?' He said, 'My 401(k) is up 40 per cent.' And I never thought it! You know, I tell you, he gave me one of the great campaign lines. It's called 'How is your 401(k) doing?'"

The Senate early on Saturday narrowly approved the most sweeping rewrite of the US tax code in three decades, slashing the corporate tax rate and providing temporary tax-rate cuts for most Americans.

Its version still needs to be reconciled with the one passed by the House in November.