Well, well. A NY Times story released Saturday (Oct 1) evening reveals that the smartest and greatest businessman (believe me) ever to vie for the office of POTUS posted a nearly $1 billion loss in 1995, a loss that due to carry-forward rules would enable him to write off up to $50 million of income for the next 18 years.
The Trump camp’s initial reaction? Not exactly a denial.
And really, why would they deny it? When Hillary Clinton speculatively floated the idea that Trump might not pay any income taxes during the first Presidential Debate last Monday (Sep 26), Trump’s response was, “That makes me smart.” Donald Trump wears tax avoidance as a badge of honor. The only thing Mr. Trump may find embarrassing about the Times story is that his mechanism for tax avoidance (at least in part) is the declaration of a yuuuge loss — a very surprising result for such a smart businessman who we were led to believe does nothing but win and win bigly.
We all know that there are millions of Trump supporters Republicans out there who will continue to keep this man’s candidacy viable. We also know that a lot of these same people thought Mitt Romney was basically right back in 2012 when he derided the “47%” of Americans who don’t have any income tax liability as a bunch of freeloaders that he couldn’t be bothered to spare a thought for. In fact, for a limited sampling of current Trump supporters who previously cheered on Romney’s 47% comments, see here, here, here, and if you must, here.
More extensive research, I’m sure, could reveal many others who in some way defended (perhaps calling it inartful but substantively true) Romney’s assault on freeloaders who don’t pay income tax, but who are supporting Trump today. In light of the Times article, every single one of those people needs to be called to account for that view and to explain how they can now bring themselves to support a freeloader with “no skin in the game.”
Of course one of those people is Mr. Trump himself. Here’s video of him defending Romney’s remark on the Piers Morgan show back then. Yes, we agree Mr. Trump. This is a “vital thing,” and it must be discussed.
