“Trump Paid Millions in Taxes” isn’t nearly as scandalous a headline as “Trump Paid Only $750 in Taxes,” although, to be fair, it does have the advantage of being true.
Alexandria Brown dug deep into the New York Times‘ story to see if there was any truth to the shrieking headlines:
As Brown further noted, “Trump PAID, as in transferred to the US Treasury, $1 million in 2016 and $4.2 million in 2017. Note also that most of the overpayment was rolled forward, not refunded.”
People who own and run businesses take losses in some years, and pay little or nothing in taxes, and make great sums in other years and pay much more in taxes.
They also take advantage of tax breaks, tax credits, and tax incentives — just like you and I do.
Here’s a screencap from the actual NYT report:
The Treasury was millions of dollars richer in 2016 and 2017, thanks to checks signed “Donald J. Trump.” But thanks to our overly complicated tax code, the line-item amount Trump technically paid for those years was $750.
Fact Check: Are you kidding us with this nonsense, NYT?
In reality, Trump has paid enough in taxes just this century to buy more than one $85 million F-35A Lightning II stealth strike jet.
I haven’t paid enough in taxes my entire working life to buy a single one of the $2 million helmets F-35 pilots wear.
Feeling like a bit of a slacker here on that score.
So, the bottom line on this NYT 'blockbuster' story on Trump's taxes is that:
– There's zero indication of illegal activity
– There's zero information on Trump's net worth
– Confirms Trump's previous statements of not paying taxes some years due to legal tax avoidance techniques— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) September 28, 2020
No, Nobody Really Cares About Trump’s Taxes
The real scandal here — aside from how awful and corrupt our tax laws are — is that someone in the federal government, presumably in the IRS, broke the law by leaking confidential tax returns.
I would remind you that while president, Barack Obama weaponized the IRS against conservative Tea Party groups.
You should also remember that this isn’t the first time the New York Times has run a tax-related hit-piece on Trump in the weeks before a presidential election.
As you can see below, The New York Times ran a hit piece on Trump right before the 2016 election, which attempted to re-frame legal, often used provisions to reduce tax liability as some sort of nefarious activity.
It didn't work then and it won't work now. https://t.co/bDlYnGN4kR
— Adrian Norman (@AdrianNormanDC) September 28, 2020
The problem with hit pieces like these — aside from the fact that the NYT prefers to bury stories about corruption and tax avoidance by Democrats — is that they rarely work, politically.
Sometime around 1991 or ’92, the American people pretty much gave up on caring about ethics in our political class.
I mean, if we didn’t care about Bill Clinton’s bimbo eruptions and pot-smoking and his wife’s dodgy investments, then it’s pretty clear that ethics as a national concern… isn’t.
It doesn’t say anything good about us as a serious nation that we went in short order from giving Clinton a bye for some serious personal foibles, to electing Barack Obama, whose presidential ambitions were launched in the living room of a domestic terrorist.
Bombshell NYT story on Trump tax returns shows that he received a $3.5 million wire transfer from a corrupt Russian tied to Vladimir Putin. Oh wait, no, that was Hunter Biden, and the NYT didn't even report it
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 27, 2020
While he was serving as vice president, Joe Biden got a top Ukrainian prosecutor fired “whose office had investigated the Burisma owner by threatening to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees.”
At the time, Biden’s son Hunter worked for Burisma to the tune of millions of dollars.
Joe Biden even boasted about getting a good man fired for daring to look into corruption at the energy firm that employed his own son. The New York Times shrugged at the news.
In fact, Hunter was up to all sorts of no good while snuggled safely under the veep’s wing.
Interesting to watch the media pry into Ivanka's $700K consulting arrangement, but not be even slightly interested in Hunter's $6 million windfall from a corrupt Chinese oligarch
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) September 28, 2020
Or as Mike Cernovich quipped, “Democrats are mad at Trump because he followed the tax laws passed by the Obama administration.”
We let all those obvious corruptions slide, and now we’re supposed to get all excited over the fact that Donald Trump…
…followed the tax code and paid what he owed plus million more in advance of when he owed it?
That’s the scandal?
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