It has been documented with extreme redundancy that Donald Trump has some issues with his taxes that he would prefer to keep out of the public eye. A recently released document that found its way to the light despite Trump’s attempts to keep his financial dealings concealed has shown that Trump might have avoided paying federal income tax over the last 18 years. In 1995, Trump posted a shocking loss of nearly $1 billion that he used as the basis for avoiding taxes in the years following the loss. When confronted with this reality in the first presidential debate, Trump commented that his actions ‘make him smart’.
Ever since the public started to realize something was fishy with Trump’s statements, surrogates for his campaign have attempted to quell the damage and the ‘rumors’. For instance, Trump has continued to emote that he can’t currently release his tax returns due to a federal tax audit he is currently undergoing. Unfortunately, that is merely an excuse, and a horrible one at that. There is no provision in audit law that says someone undergoing an audit can not release their tax returns, so what is Trump’s real reason for the secrecy?
Many experts have made claims about what they expect to find in Donald Trump’s tax returns. The shocking revelation that he lost over $900 million in 1995 could simply be the tip of the iceberg. Some analysts believe that Trump isn’t worth anywhere near the amount of money he claims, while others think he is trying to avoid giving out details regarding the activities of the Trump Foundation, a charity organization that Trump uses as a money-laundering front. In fact, the Trump Foundation recently received a cease and desist letter from the state of New York to stop collecting donations since the organization never received accreditation as a charity.
Recently, a CNN reporter by the name of Dana Bush was interviewing Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s son, and young Trump had an obvious meltdown during her questions about his father’s tax situation. He kept attempting to evade the questions, and his rambling response included the word ‘tremendous’ seven times. He described the tremendous amount of tax that Trump pays, the tremendous real estate tax, the tremendous employment taxes, and many others. However, he refused to comment on the actual federal income tax issue, which points to the idea that something is truly being swept under the rug.
After Eric Trump made a fool of himself by dancing around the real issue brought up by Dana Bush, he continued to spew the same rhetoric regarding Trump’s tax returns that his father has been pushing since the start of the election cycle. Trump has stated numerous times that he isn’t legally able to release his tax returns during a federal tax audit that he is currently experiencing, but that is patently untrue. Trump could legally release his statements if he wanted to, but it doesn’t fit his narrative and might make him look weak, so instead of telling the truth, he concocts horrendous lies and obvious fallacies in order to make himself out as the victim of an oppressive government.
During the vice presidential debate, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, pointed out that Trump promised to release his federal income tax returns back in 2014, long before he started campaigning for President of the United States. What changed Trump’s mind between then and now? Did he even change his mind, or was his promise from 2014 a lie that he knew he would eventually have to deal with? Regardless of the answer, Trump is clearly not suited for the highest office of the United States.