Donald Trump played a strange video at his rally Wednesday meant to criticize Kamala Harris’s plan to increase taxes for the middle class. But a closer look at the video finds that none of the clips included advocated for increasing taxes on the middle class.

“She’s the taxing queen. She’s going to raise your taxes, where you’re going to be at least paying at least three thousand dollars a year more. Take a look,” Trump said before referring to the screen behind him.

Behind him, Trump played a video that edited together different times Harris had announced her plan to “get rid of that tax bill” and “get rid of that tax cut,” referring to the corporate tax rate cuts Trump had installed during his time in office. In fact, two of the included clips are of Harris explicitly talking about corporate tax rates.

Originally, the Trump administration had claimed that the corporate tax rate cuts at the center of his 2017 tax bill would boost household income by a “very conservative” estimate of $4,000 per household, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

In reality, workers who earned below an average of $114,000 saw no change in their earnings as a result of the corporate tax rate cut, while wealthy business owners and top executives reaped the benefits. Harris plans to increase the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.

The video also contained footage of Harris saying that estate taxes “are going to have to go up.” Harris has proposed a plan to lower housing costs that would be funded primarily through changes to the federal estate tax law and an increase to the corporate tax rate.

Harris has yet to publish a proposal for increasing the yield from estate taxes, whether it would mean upping the rate or lowering the exemptions. Currently, only 0.2 percent of U.S. adults are subject to the federal estate tax, according to IRS data.

The video also contained footage of Harris’s campaign co-chair, Chris Coons, defending her plan for a 25 percent tax on unrealized capital gains. It contains another clip of Bharat Ramamurti, President Joe Biden’s former National Economic Council deputy director, explaining that the plan would only affect those with a net worth of more than $100 million, or less than 1 percent of taxpayers—a fact that Trump’s video carefully elides.

The video also contained footage of Harris advocating for a carbon tax, which would penalize big polluters. While this could potentially increase energy costs for consumers, it is not a tax on the middle class.

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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House

Joe Biden on Wednesday pressed Benjamin Netanyahu to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Lebanon and minimise civilian casualties in Israel’s strikes against Hizbollah, even though previous calls for restraint from the US have fallen flat.

The US president and the Israeli prime minister spoke by phone for the first time in two months after a new flare-up in tensions between the two allies compounded by miscommunication over Israel’s approach to expanding conflict in the Middle East.

The conversation, which was described as “direct” and “productive” by the White House, came as US officials try to limit Israel’s response to last week’s Iranian missile attack on the country and rein in its ground offensive in the south of Lebanon.

However, there are widespread doubts over Biden’s influence over Netanyahu after the Israeli prime minister has time and again ignored Washington’s pleas for more limited military operations and increased diplomatic engagement since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.

Those concerns have grown more acute in recent weeks, as Israel’s military has sharply increased its attacks on Hizbollah, the Iranian proxy group operating in Lebanon, directly defying Biden’s calls for a ceasefire in the region at the UN General Assembly in New York last month.

According to the White House, Biden did not call for Israel to stop all military operations in Lebanon in his conversation with Netanyahu on Wednesday.

But he did tell the prime minister that a “diplomatic arrangement” was needed for Lebanese and Israeli civilians to return to their homes on both sides of the “blue line” — the de facto border between the countries. He also called for Israel “to minimise harm to civilians” in Lebanon, especially in the capital, Beirut.

The White House did not say whether the two leaders discussed Israel’s looming response to Iran, though the US president has warned the Israelis away from striking nuclear facilities and energy infrastructure.

But while Biden and other top US officials have repeatedly been irked and even angered by Netanyahu’s unwillingness to heed their advice, they have been unwilling to make any big changes in US policy to raise the pressure on Israel — such as an arms embargo.

“Biden has been unwilling to use his leverage over Netanyahu because of the president’s persona, policy and domestic politics, especially so close to one of the most consequential elections in modern American history,” said Aaron David Miller, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Biden’s margin for pressuring Netanyahu contracted, [while] Netanyahu’s margin for resisting that pressure expanded,” he added.

In recent weeks, US officials have acknowledged that Israel has made what they see as tactical gains against Hizbollah in Lebanon after it killed Hassan Nasrallah, its leader, and damaged much of the group’s capacity to strike at Israel.

But Washington has also warned Israel against overplaying its hand, insisting there should be a path back to a truce.

When Netanyahu on Tuesday warned the Lebanese people in a video address to root out Hizbollah or face similar destruction to what Israel inflicted on Gaza, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, responded: “We cannot and will not see Lebanon turn into Gaza — into another Gaza.”

Other US officials have said Israel needs to develop a better long-term vision for its place in the Middle East.

“The challenge going forward is to turn tactical wins in battle into a strategy that secures Israel’s people and its future,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said at an event at the Israeli embassy in Washington this week.

“That takes real discipline, it takes courage, it takes foresight to match the conduct of war to a clear and sustainable set of objectives. That is never easy, but it’s imperative,” he added.

But many in Washington say US diplomacy towards Israel has floundered. “US policy has been trying to both deter and de-escalate at the same time, and realistically speaking, you can most effectively do one or the other, but trying to do both seems to have limited effects in both directions,” said Jonathan Lord, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security.

Sam Read/BBC

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‘Embarrassed and ashamed’

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‘Let down’

‘Controls in place’

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‘Don’t be rushed’

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of Hurricane Milton, the category-three storm which has hit Florida this morning.

Millions were urged to evacuate their homes in Florida as the hurricane threatens the US state’s battered Gulf Coast, with President Joe Biden warning it is a “matter of life and death”.

The storm made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state.

The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) as it roared ashore near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

The storm was bringing deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Residents have been forced to flee from the area faced massive traffic jams on motorways and fuel shortages.

Milton threatens a stretch of the densely populated west coast still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Helene, which flooded homes and streets in western Florida and left at least 230 dead in September.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said the storm surge forecast for her city of up to 15 feet (4.5 metres) would be deep enough to swallow an entire house.

She added: “So if you’re in it, basically that’s the coffin that you’re in.”