In mid-August, Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax rate (which brought her up to fifteen years of disclosed returns). In doing so, she pressured Donald Trump to join the long tradition of presidential candidates doing so, but naturally, Trump declined to comply. And at last week’s debate, he admitted to feeling “smart” when Clinton suggested that he doesn’t pay federal taxes. Trump later groused to Bill O’Reilly that he never admitted to not paying taxes, only that it’s a smart idea “because tax is a big payment.”
Throughout his campaign, Trump has consistently refused to disclose his taxes due to his chronic audits (which do not preclude release under IRS rules). Well, New York Times obtained some of Trump’s 1995 tax records and published them on Saturday night. The result was rather damning even if the documents didn’t prove any illegal acts on Trump’s behalf. What the documents did show is that Trump might have avoided up to 18 years of federal taxes because he declared a $916 million loss in 1995, which is a humiliating blow to the business mogul’s reputation.
For real. Trump brands himself as a political outsider who is fit to lead this country — despite an utter lack of policy and governing experience — because he’s a great negotiator and has great business sense. But a mere few pages of tax documents reveal a lack of such prowess, and not only did Trump sustain a stunning loss, he appears to have richly benefited from his failure by possibly avoiding taxes. Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook labeled The Times‘ report as a “bombshell” in this statement:
“There it is. This bombshell report reveals the colossal nature of Donald Trump’s past business failures and just how long he may have avoided paying any federal income taxes whatsoever. In one year, Donald Trump lost nearly a billion dollars. A billion. He stiffed small businesses, laid off workers, and walked away from hardworking communities. And how did it work out for him? He apparently got to avoid paying taxes for nearly two decades — while tens of millions of working families paid theirs. He calls that “smart.” Now that the gig is up, why doesn’t he go ahead and release his returns to show us all how “smart” he really is?”
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign addressed The Times report as revolving around “illegally obtained” information while claiming media bias is the real culprit:
“The only news here is that the more than 20-year-old alleged tax document was illegally obtained, a further demonstration that The New York Times, like establishment media in general, is an extension of the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests.”
So, Trump’s team is downplaying the significance of the tax documents and pointing to “special interests” as the reason The Times reported them at all. There’s no indication that they’re alarmed by the disclosure of Trump’s $916 million loss in 1995, but that’s probably an indication of the spin we’ll soon see from his campaign.
(Via CNN & Washington Post)
