The Democrats are understandably shoveling anything and everything at the barn door. The propaganda memes emerge in a steady stream from the various ops rooms.
Some are a bit weak like the "urine based case" thing referring to Trump's demand that both he and Biden be drug tested before the 1st debate, but the latest shovel full contains the accusation that after his business lawyers did their magic Trump paid very little income tax for a number of years. For a lot of people this is a serious charge. It is not for me.
The truth is that anyone with any sense pays as little income tax as the law allows. If your tax lawyers and accountants can produce losses in a present year or previous years as carry overs then you apply them to your taxes. To do otherwise is simpleminded.
pl
Trump paid more on his Russia deals than Hunter paid on his China deals. Oh, wait, the NYT confirms Trump had no Russia deals.
It only makes sense to carry losses forward – as permitted by law – to diminish taxes owed in future years’ profits. I did that myself when I had a losing season with race horses. Totally legal and, yes, only an idiot wouldn’t take advantage of it. I thought this was settled back in 2016 with regards to Trump. I guess the scurrilous press thinks that the people have short memories and pathetic understanding of how the world works.
The American people chronically blame the wrong “culprits.”
They are, for instance, furious with corporations for “offering bribes” to influence legislation, never mind that doing so is completely legal, and then reelect the legislators who accepted the bribes and legislated against the voters’ best interest.
Just as a wife blames the “other woman” for her husband’s infidelity.
The fact that Trump (end everyone else who was rich) paid low taxes is somehow in no way the fault of the legislators who wrote the tax laws.
All of this validates the aphorism that the intelligence of a crowd is the IQ of the dumbest person in the crowd divided by the number of people in the crowd.
Meanwhile, in para 78 (Can’t say the NYT is the Pravda of today. No. no. It reports everything. If you read right to the very end)
“Mr. Trump was periodically required to pay a parallel income tax called the alternative minimum tax, created as a tripwire to prevent wealthy people from using huge deductions, including business losses, to entirely wipe out their tax liabilities.
Mr. Trump paid alternative minimum tax in seven years between 2000 and 2017 — a total of $24.3 million, excluding refunds he received after filing.”
Keeping any dime we can out of IRS hands is an issue that will bring us together – not divide us. We all do it. Everyone shudders at the thought our most private records can be splashed across the front pages of the NYT.
Bad call, idiots. State’s evidence #1 – out of control big government that runs fast and loose for political revenge is very scary. Ex-wives can blab, but the government is expected to hold our private records as a sacred trust. Meanwhile the NYT celebrates this blasphemy.
from the mouths of babes, Eric Trump statement in 2014: “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
Trump is in debt, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to an unknown entity. $421 million in debt, and the bill is coming due in the next few years. Would it matter to anyone if this entity turned out to be Russia?
At least he had good reason to tease & then not release his tax records. He’s still teasing. Gotta love an entertainer.
We are in the early stages of an existential civilizational war. I would not care if the man openly and brazenly cheated on his taxes. He fights back. That is all that matters.
He could be mounting goats from the backside daily on the White House lawn to the hypocritical gasping horror of the White House Press Corps for all I care, as long as he continues to give these evil globalists hemorrhoids. Propriety is a luxury afforded only by the undestroyed.
It’s not even worth a yawn that he took advantage of loop holes available to the rich. However, it is interesting that the globalists are so desperate that they would even attempt to make this an issue at this late date. While arrogance beyond a certain point becomes indistinguishable from stupidity, they can’t possibly believe this will work. Maybe they don’t have high confidence in their vote fraud schemes.
Patrick Armstrong
Thanks. The AMT thing is significant. I do our taxes and i always wait with concern to the end to see if that is going to kick in.
Seen on twitter, but it makes a lot of sense:
Joel Pollak
New York Times says Trump paid no taxes in some years, because of huge losses. They found nothing on Russia and no Michael Cohen. They confirmed he has been under audit a long time. And nothing illegal, apparently — except the IRS leak.
To the swamp and their media mouthpieces ALL money is theirs.
You only have temporary use of it
Are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, etc. – all liberal big government types – filling out their 1040s just like any other taxpaying chump?
Patrick,
I thought the right way to read Pravda was to start at the back?
ked,
Back in the 1950s and 60s, Birchers and Republicans like Senator Joseph McCarthy thought there was a vast Russian conspiracy acting inside the US. This was later shown to be a hysteria, dubbed the Red Scare, that held little basis in reality.
Anyone who believes President Trump is a Russian pawn should consider the matter with a lot of skepticism. It’s very plausible and likely (but there is no hard evidence of this) that Russia hacked the DNC, not with the intention of helping Trump win, but to hurt Hillary’s ability to govern as president. The Russians believe US elections are rigged, just like the DNC primaries were rigged in Hillary’s favor.
I don’t know what dealings Trump had with Russians (probably the same kind of dealings he has with everyone else), but I can’t imagine that any Russian banks would put half a billion dollars in the hands of Donald Trump to build golf courses with a future view of controlling him politically like some Manchurian candidate. He’s not Elon Musk funding the development of electric cars. There’s no way he’s getting that kind of money from banks anywhere in the world.
Also Eric Trump has gone on record to deny the claim.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/07/trump-family-golf-courses-russia-funding-author-claims
Until there’s real evidence, something Mueller’s special counsel, Congressional Democrats, New York DAs, and the FBI have failed to conjure up to date, I don’t think anyone should put stock in these kind of claims.
The personally secured loans seem to be the biggest danger both to Trump and to the United States.
RPL
I would like to see what he paid under AMT.
The NYT always does something of this sort. Usually in the case of Republican candidates for POTUS, an election eve front page report of marital infidelity is published (e.g., George HW Bush, John McCain). In Trump’s case, since he willingly exuded a playboy persona for so many decades, I doubt if marital infidelity would be shocking – not that the NYT won’t try. We’ll see. You read it here first.
The tax story is simply a joke. The guy has numerous businesses and like Patrick Armstrong said, if more than the headline is read it’s revealed Trump paid millions in taxes. But as usual the pandering MSM rely on the ignorance and laziness of its audience. Items like this in the NYT give the TV pundits/First Wives Club something to chatter about hysterically, which seems to be a main purpose. Yawn…
Laura Wilson
So you think the Russian banks can control him by threatening to foreclose? I hope you realize how stupid an idea that is. Are you actually Pelosi?
Part of the resentment people feel seems to come from those who are “Salary men”, who are boxed in on taxes. I’m no Trump by any means, but I do own a small business which is a “C Corporation” and that permits me latitude beyond that of a similar person who gets a W2. I have often thought that to be unfair, but I don’t make the rules and I’d be a fool not to use them to my advantage. I have an experienced CPA do the corporate taxes and am reasonably confident that we’re doing everything legally. Democrats have been obsessed with the idea that Trump MUST BE a criminal. After all they don’t like him so: Quod erat demonstrandum.
Yes, I actually do think that whoever or whatever entity that holds the “personally secured” loans CAN leverage influence over a man who is absolutely obsessed with being seen as “super rich and super successful.” I don’t see this as being particularly controversial…blackmail only works on people to whom their image is very important. To Trump image is everything…that is no secret, is it?
Laura Wilson
I see. You could be controlled that way. Are you?
turcoplier.
re: I would like to see what he paid under AMT.
It’s got to be a lot. Says there is a ten year running bone of contention between him and the IRS over $79mil he was refunded. The IRS apparently wants it back. It’s a safe bet he cheated on his taxes the safe way, declaring losses or costs that weren’t actually declarable. That’s the way everybody does it. They say it didn’t qualify and you can say “oops”, pay it, and that’s that. Just don’t try to hide income. Big no-no.
The main issue I have with this article is the assertion he’s in a lot of trouble over $300 mil coming due in the next two-three years. This struck me as ridiculous on a couple levels. He’s a developer, those deals typically set a “due” date so investors can force a sale to cash out…IF they don’t feel like letting that bet ride, which happens a lot of the time. Being in big debt is what developers do for a living. Moreover, it says he was being paid $400mil a year as a game show host. Well, should he suddenly have a bunch of free time on his hands he could ask for Rush Limbaugh money now. He could make that much in a few months. Big trouble?? What are they looking at?
I believe him to be a shameless liar, a thief and a monumental jackass, but even I can’t damn him for anything in that article.
Mark K Logan
How is he a liar? Is it because he gives his opinion and you want to fact check him on that? How is he a thief? He donates his presidential salary to charity.
Mark Logan,
“The IRS apparently wants it back. It’s a safe bet ” All those years Obama was in office and the IRS did what? Was Lois Lerner and company busy doing anything else of importance?
turcoplier,
I view his character as less than stellar. What became of the Trump Foundation?
There is more to come out. I heard yesterday that the Times has additional articles. I can’t defend putting the information about AMT taxes paid so late in the article. I am interested in learning more but it won’t change my vote.
It seems to me that the real story here is that someone who claims to be such a great businessman and a billionaire couldn’t make any money in good times or bad. That his businesses all cater to wealthy people makes that even more puzzling. How can you not make a big profit from a bunch of millionaires during the course of two decades?
I wish someone would ask Trump that. Of course he wouldn’t have a real answer.
Mark K Logan
You did not answer my questions. Trump University? Less that stellar performance. Anything else?
Isn’t leaking tax info a felony?
Guess that goes along with the rest of the swamp rule – “laws for thee, not for me.”
Like all the leaking and unmasking and the Durham “investigation.”
All
https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/12/13/president-trump-salary-donation/
TV,
our career professionals in government have been very willing to leak, leak and leak some more in an effort to drive Trump from office. He’s exposed them for the partisan hacks they have always been. Time for a cleaning of the Augean Stables.
turcoplier,
My post referenced the Trump Foundation, not Trump U. The fate of that Foundation was my answer to the question of his honesty and such.
mark logan
How about the Clinton Foundation and its Canadian connections” How are you on that one?
turcoplier,
Chelsea’s song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqBWwzR7TJQ