By now everyone has heard about the New York Times blockbuster story on Trump's taxes. We now know that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency, and only $750 in his first year in the White House. He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.
The article also states that Trump's businesses generated so much red ink that he requested and got a $72 million tax refund-- currently in dispute. He expensed exorbitant consulting fees paid to his daughter, table linens and silverware, aircraft fuel, and professional photograph- as well as thousands of dollars in haircuts and makeup.
If nothing else, Donald Trump’s tax returns prove that he is a business failure. Nothing summarizes the New York Times story better than this: Trump got a bunch of money from his daddy. He lost it all, but then he got paid hundreds of millions to play a billionaire on TV. He tried to use that new money to become a real billionaire, but he lost it all again.
Trump's short-lived career as a reality TV host brought him a total of $427.4 million. He invested much of that in a collection of businesses, mostly golf courses, that in the years since have steadily devoured cash — much as the money he secretly received from his father financed a spree of quixotic overspending that led to his collapse in the early 1990s.
The Trump corporation has lost $134 million since 2000. Trump's golf courses have lost a total of $316 million since 2000. The Trump International hotel lost $55 million since it opened. Trump is so deeply in debt that he is personally responsible for loans and other debts totaling $421 million, with most of it coming due within four years. And that doesn’t even include $72.9 million that he likely owes the IRS for a dubious tax refund he claimed in 2010.
His massive indebtedness is not merely a legal and ethical failing, it makes him a national security threat as someone who is vulnerable to pressures from foreign adversaries. What's more, his failure to pay his fair share is an insult to the millions of Americans who are forced to pick up the slack. And it is monumentally hypocritical because it deprives the military, law enforcement, healthcare, and every other public service of scarce funding, while he's trying to take credit for supporting those services and simultaneously cutting their budgets.
Very few journalists are willing to confirm the obvious-- but not MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. She understands that one can infer that Trump's tax dealings are a complete fraud. She scorched Trump for claiming he would close loopholes for the rich-- he made it wider. She spoke to other rich moguls who made it clear they do take on those selfish excesses. She pointed out that some of his expenses look like a fraud. Her take-down was complete.
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