28 September 2020 - New York Times publishes Donald Trump's tax returns
Trump Holds $421 Million In Debt, Could Owe IRS $100 Million In Penalties, Times Says
Nick Visser (The Huffington Post, 28/09/2020)
President Donald Trump personally holds $421 million in debt and loans that are largely coming due in the next four years, The New York Times reported Sunday after obtaining more than two decades of his long-sought tax returns.
An ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, could cost Trump more than $100 million.
The Times report also revealed that the president’s vast business interests created potential and real conflicts of interest for years and are under more financial stress than the self-described billionaire has previously disclosed.
The New York Times' coverage of Trump's taxes is an emperor-has-no-clothes moment
Brian Stelter (CNN Business, 28/09/2020)
The New York Times just published one of the most important stories of the past five years.The story is about President Trump's taxes. This is an "emperor has no clothes" moment for the president and the beginning of a long, drawn-out news cycle about his finances.
As CNN's John Harwood said during Sunday evening's breaking news coverage, the story is "a devastating picture of a president who is bleeding financially and is depending on his presidency to prop him up financially."
Will the New York Times taxes report sink Donald Trump?
David Smith (The Guardian, 28/09/2020)
From the moment he rode down an escalator in the marble-clad, gold-trimmed Trump Tower to declare his candidacy for US president, Donald Trump was selling himself as a successful businessman who could run a successful economy.
It was an image cultivated with voters for a decade on The Apprentice, the reality TV show in which Trump sat in judgment on aspiring entrepreneurs and told most: “You’re fired!”
On Sunday the mask was finally torn off. According to a blockbuster New York Times investigation into his taxes, the self-proclaimed billionaire, a personification of the hedonism and extravagance of the 1980s, has been losing more money than he makes.
Donald Trump Barely Pays Any Taxes: Will Anyone Care?
David Remnick (The New Yorker, 28/09/2020)
Three enterprising reporters for the New York Times published a bombshell report Sunday evening on Donald Trump’s financial life, making it clear that the President of the United States is a desperate, cash-hungry grifter who paid no federal income taxes at all in ten of the fifteen years leading up to his run for office and has, in his frenzied quest to stay afloat, “propped up his sagging bottom line” by exploiting his office.
Readers learn that Trump, who inherited an immense fortune from his father, found countless ways to squander his capital. And, like his old man, he also found countless ways to short the government, including, according to the Times, paying his daughter Ivanka legally dubious consulting fees. At the same time, Trump has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in debt that he must soon repay. He is an almost comically inept businessman; he is the sum of his debt and bankruptcies. Nearly everything he touches turns to lead. Were it not for his investments in Trump Tower, “The Apprentice,” and little else—and were it not for the tireless ministrations of his accountants—he would likely be on his back. The question is: Will anyone care?