Donald Trump is on the verge of becoming the first presidential candidate in decades who has not revealed his tax returns. The tax returns are especially crucial in his case because as a self-proclaimed billionaire who has attained many business successes in the private sector, that is one of the crucial ways for us to truly gauge his competency, his truthfulness, and his honor.
Because we do not have these financial documents, we are left to conclude that Donald Trump is a pauper, incompetent in business and a failure as a business leader; a liar, a walking contradiction, whose public pronouncements do not hold up under scrutiny; and finally a cheat who does anything to benefit himself including stealing from those in need.
It’s time to take the gloves off and hit him where it hurts. Our goal is to make him prove he isn’t a Pauper, a Liar and a Thief by revealing his tax returns. If he continues to refuse to show his tax returns, as is likely to happen, we need to press that he is not a billionaire, is highly indebted to (and thus influenced by) foreign entities, pays $0 in taxes and gives $0 to charity, he steals from the public to benefit himself personally. All of which undermines his competency as a businessman, the truthfulness of his candidacy and his honor as an American.
A Pauper
Many reports and interviews have revealed that Mr. Trump has financial woes, and owes a great deal to foreign entities including those in Russia and China. The extent of these connections can be fully revealed in his tax returns, which he refuses to disclose. This may lead one to believe that his businesses have under-performed over the past 10 years, which means his annual income has greatly diminished, and put stress on his wealth level. It may be that he has fallen from the ranks of billionaires. Without the tax returns, we are left to conclude that he is just a millionaire, a mere pauper, indebted and in significant financial straits.
A Liar
Not only is Donald Trump’s refusal to reveal his tax returns going against political norms of past presidential candidates, with the excuse that he is under audit, he refuses to even show the audit letter, or even share older tax returns. This means we cannot verify his claims about his wealth, charity, foreign influences and business connections. Without the tax returns, we are left to conclude that he is a liar and withholds financial information that would exonerate him in this regard, because on the contrary, the evidence would show he has been dishonest with the American people. This is critical because, as reported by Newsweek last week, his foreign financial entanglements reveal conflicts of interest that no president of the US should have while in office. So Trump is lying about being under audit, which shouldn’t prevent from revealing his tax returns in the first place. We are left to conclude he is indeed largely influenced by Russia, skirt tax laws and pays no taxes, and is too cheap to give anything to charity. He is lying about his level of indebtedness to foreign nations, his charitable donations and that he is as rich as he claims to be.
A Cheat
There are many examples of Trump thieving and cheating to fill his personal coffers. As revealed in today’s WaPo, Donald Trump used $258K of charitable funds geared to his foundation to pay his legal bills. He refuses to pay small businesses for work completed on his casinos, and has multiple lawsuits against him for failure to pay his vendors. His had multiple bankruptcies that hurt the little people and shareholders, while he walks away scott-free. He takes public funds geared to small businesses affected by 911. Because we do not have financial disclosures to disprove this, we are left to conclude, Trump steals from his charity and from the public to benefit himself personally. Money geared to helping others has been diverted to helping his pockets.
There is no evidence to divert us from the above facts. On the contrary, we’ve seen so many reports over the past months that shed light on some of these truths. Now we need to keep this narrative at the forefront, and fight fire with fire, so that the American people know this truth: Donald Trump refuses to release his tax returns because it would confirm that he is a pauper, a liar and a cheat, not qualified to run this country.
SQ