One of the clearest takeaways from The New York Times' extensive reporting on Donald Trump's dodgy tax schemes is the fact that he is personally on the hook for more than $400 million in debt—over $300 million of which comes due in the next four years.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts summed up what an extensive national security liability that actually represents. “He may be vulnerable to financial blackmail from a hostile foreign power and God knows what else,” Warren told the Associated Press.
What's perhaps most telling about the threat Trump's debt poses is the fact that he's gone to such great lengths to hide it from basically everyone, including U.S. voters. As the AP notes, he continues to use the excuse of an ongoing IRS audit to keep his tax returns secret. At the same time, his attorneys are using every legal trick in the book to block the New York attorney general, Manhattan district attorney, and two House committees from gaining access to the records.
Of all those entities, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance appears to have made at least some headway in investigating Trump's finances, with Deutsche Bank having already provided detailed financial records regarding its lending history with him. Vance's office, however, is declining to enforce a subpoena to obtain eight years of Trump's tax returns from his accounting firm while his lawyers continue to appeal the subpoena.
But Trump's extensive financial exposure along with his history of bankruptcies alone raise all sorts of red flags from a national security standpoint.
Richard Painter, the chief ethics attorney in George W. Bush's White House, points out that under any normal circumstances, banks simply wouldn't continue lending money to a serial loser like Trump.
“Why would banks assume the risk on these loans?” Painter said. “Or did someone else quietly assume risk of that loan for the bank to make it happen?”
That someone else could be anyone, including Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia—literally anyone with the resources, who would then have total leverage over Trump.
And to Painter's point, Deutsche Bank continued lending millions to Trump even after he defaulted on a loan in 2008 and then turned around and sued the bank.
The Times' tax story revealed that while serving as president, Trump has continued to profit from foreign investments as well as foreign dollars that have flowed to his hotels and various other properties. While that certainly represents a conflict of interest, the most glaring vulnerability is his $400 million in debt, according to The Washington Post.
“To whom? Different countries? What is the leverage they have?” wondered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “For me, this is a national security question.”
And Trump's extensive efforts to keep his finances hidden only compound the national security threat.
“It’s the hiding of a vulnerability that is a real indicator” of risk, Jeffrey Edmonds, a former CIA analyst who served in the Trump White House on the National Security Council, told the Post. “The more you try to hide something like that, the greater lengths you will go to keep it concealed.”
The Post adds:
Officials said the tax records seem to reflect other Trump traits that would probably trouble counterintelligence experts. They cited the disorganized structure of his companies, seeming contempt for the tax code, discrepancies in his valuations of assets, and potentially illegal practice of paying consulting fees to family members.
Naturally, all these points of leverage look even more suspicious in light of the fact that Trump has repeatedly declined to challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout his presidency.
But one thing we know for certain is that Trump will continue guarding his tax returns and any other illuminating financial records until the very last. That fact alone should be disqualifying for anyone seeking to be president of the United States or, in this case, reelection to a second term.
No one with Trump’s financial history ever would have come even close to getting a security clearance. And yet there he sits in the Oval Office, America’s No. 1 national security threat.