Donald Trump said he intended to "take care" of middle class Americans in his planned overhaul of the tax code. 

Mired in an effort to repeal Obamacare, the President suggested his next domestic priority would be cutting taxes. 

“The people I care most about are the middle-income people in this country, who have gotten screwed,” Mr Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Tuesday.

The president reiterated that he wants to bring down the corporate tax rate to 15%, a proposal he announced in April.

“And if there’s upward revision it’s going to be on high-income people,” he said. 

Echoing some of the populist themes from his presidential campaign, Mr Trump said it was necessary to boost economic growth and ease the tax burden on middle-class families.

“I have wealthy friends that say to me, ‘I don’t mind paying more tax,’ ” the president said.

Without giving details, he added: “We have to take care of middle-income people in this country. They built the country. They started this whole beautiful thing that we have. And we have to take care of them. And people have not taken care of them, and we’re going to.”

Mr Trump’s aides are working with top Republican lawmakers on rewriting the tax code for the first time in 30 years, the newspaper reported.

The president first announced relief for the American middle class in April as part of what the White House called "biggest tax cut in history".

Addressing the issue of who would be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve board of governors next year, Mr Trump said the incumbent, Janet Yellen, and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, would be the front-runners.

With Mr Cohn watching on during the interview, Mr Trump was asked if he was a candidate to become the next Federal Reserve chairman.  “He doesn’t know this, but yes, he is,” the president said.

Mr Cohn reportedly responded by laughing. “This is an interview with the president,” he said, declining additional comment.