The New York Times released a lengthy report about Donald Trump’s finances, and while it says a whole bunch about Trump, it doesn’t say anything about him actually breaking the law. Instead, it portrays a highly influential man who, at times, lost plenty of money (mostly belonging to other people), while making lots of money at other times.
It also shows a businessman who has often legally avoided paying taxes, just like other entrepreneurs who understand the loopholes in real estate business. Given the fact that Trump should have released his tax returns like every other presidential candidate in the past 40 years, he has drawn the attention of journalists who wonder what he has to hide from the public eye.
Despite the fact that journalists are making it look like he’s deceiving the people, it doesn’t look like Trump will be losing any of his political support. His backers will continue to look at him as a successful businessman, and his critics will continue to paint him as a conman.
Also, the public already knew that Trump had used mountains of debt and tax writeoffs to build his gigantic empire. We also knew that he lost an incredible amount of money on ventures like bankrupt casinos, as well as an airline shuttle. Despite the fact the news anchors and journalists keep referring to Trump as “the biggest loser,” he still has Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower, and of course, the White House.
The Times was actually able to get their hands on printouts from Trump’s IRS transcripts from the tax years of 1985 to 1994 when Trump was in his rise to fame. These are just the most recent tax transcripts the Democratic House is demanding from the Treasury.
According to the new revelations: “The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade. In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer.” It also included something that no politician wants the world to know: “Overall, Mr. Trump lost so much money that he was able to avoid paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years.”
In Trump’s 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal,” he bragged about using depreciation to cut his taxes. According to the Times, “the tax code also lets business owners like Mr. Trump use losses to avoid paying tax on future income — a lucrative deduction intended to help troubled businesses get back on their feet.”
According to the Times, Trump’s lawyer Charles Harder called the story “demonstrably false.” He also called the paper’s statements “about the president’s tax returns and business from 30 years ago are highly inaccurate.”
Of course, President Trump had to tweet about the story: “Real estate developers in the 1980’s & 1990’s…were entitled to massive write offs [sic] and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show losses and tax losses in almost all cases. Much was non monetary. [sic] Sometimes considered ‘tax shelter,’ you would get it by building, or even buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes….almost all real estate developers did – and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport. Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!”
From 1986 to 1988, Trump “made millions of dollars in the stock market by suggesting that he was about to take over companies. But the figures show that he lost most, if not all, of those gains after investors stopped taking his takeover talk seriously.” It’s obviously well known that President Trump lost way more money than he wanted us to know, paid less in taxes, and exploited the tax system. But it’s not a requirement for a businessman to take every deduction that they can to avoid paying taxes.
