Trump issues furious excuses after his taxes reveal he’s a terrible business man
Yesterday, The New York Times released a bombshell report which exposed Donald Trump as not only a serial tax evader, but a deeply incompetent businessman who has constructed an image for himself as a successful mogul to obfuscate his staggeringly terrible business practices. He’s awash in debt and it appears there is a good chance that he ran for president in an effort to reinvigorate his brand and excavate himself from financial ruin. Everything about his image is manufactured and fake.
Starting in 2000, Trump managed to avoid paying federal income taxes altogether for 10 out of the 15 following years by writing off massive losses. In both 2016 and 2017, he finagled his way into paying a paltry $750 in annual federal income taxes.
The fact that Trump rarely pays taxes is something that many critics have long suspected but now that there is definitive proof it’ll be difficult for his fans to argue in good faith that he has any real love for this country. The same man determined to gut the social safety net on behalf of the plutocrats running the GOP has a habitual aversion to contributing to the operating costs of the government he was elected to run.
Today, Trump lashed out at the “Fake News Media” on Twitter for “bringing up” his taxes as well as “all sorts of other nonsense.” He claimed without evidence that the Times “illegally” and maliciously obtained the information contained in the tax article. The president claimed that he has paid “millions of dollars in taxes” but that he used “depreciation & tax credits” to lessen his tax burden, an explanation that simply doesn’t add up given the magnitude of avoidance on display in the Times article. Even factoring in depreciation and whatever unspecified tax credits he’s referring to, he should have paid much more than he did.
Trump wasn’t done with one tweet though, and went on to claim that he has “extraordinary assets” and claimed that he is “under leveraged” with “very little debt compared to the value of assets.” The claim is a transparent attempt to shore up his master businessman image but simply doesn’t seem to be true based on the Times’s reporting.
The president wound down his little tweetstorm by stating that he “may release” financial statements revealing his assets, debts, and properties. Like most promises about transparency Trump makes though, it seems unlikely he will actually follow through. It’s clear that yesterday’s public revelations have burrowed under Trump’s infamously thin-skin, most likely because he knows that they’re true and hates it. He’s a failed businessman and a failed president and all he has to defend himself at this point are lies.
The Fake News Media, just like Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information & only bad intent. I paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation & tax credits…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2020
…..Also, if you look at the extraordinary assets owned by me, which the Fake News hasn’t, I am extremely under leveraged – I have very little debt compared to the value of assets. Much of this information is already on file, but I have long said that I may release….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2020
…..Financial Statements, from the time I announced I was going to run for President, showing all properties, assets and debts. It is a very IMPRESSIVE Statement, and also shows that I am the only President on record to give up my yearly $400,000 plus Presidential Salary!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2020
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