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The scoop from ‘The New York Times’, reporting that Trump paid only $ 750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and none at all for 10 of the previous 15 years, was a shot in the jugular of the self-described billionaire .
US President Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at MBS International Airport in Freeland, Michigan, on September 10, 2020. Image: AFP.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump staggered Monday on the eve of his first televised debate against challenger Joe Biden after an unexpected report showed he has been avoiding paying almost any federal income tax for years.
The scoop on The New York Times, reporting that Trump paid only $ 750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and none for 10 of the previous 15 years, was a shot in the jugular of the self-described billionaire.
Trump, who portrays himself as a tough businessman on a mission to drain the Washington swamp, dismissed the Times story, which according to the newspaper is based on examining your secret tax returns for a long time.
“Fake news outlets, just like the 2016 election time, are exposing my taxes and all sorts of nonsense with illegally obtained information,” he tweeted Monday.
But with several new polls on Sunday once again suggesting that Biden has the upper hand, the Republican enters the debate in Cleveland on Tuesday increasingly on the defensive.
A Washington Post / ABC News poll placed Biden 10 points ahead of Trump nationally, with 53% to 43% support among registered voters, while an NBC News-Marist poll gave the Democrat an advantage. similar from 54 to 44 in the key state of Wisconsin: – that Trump had carried in 2016.
Trump’s Democratic challenger is focusing on the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his controversial rush to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the late liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
But the tax report threatens the core of Trump’s political identity: that vaunted ability to connect with blue-collar voters.
Although its impact on voters was not yet clear, the Times The report gives Biden lots of fresh ammunition.
And the Democrat’s campaign immediately opened fire with an ad comparing typical income tax payments for ordinary Americans, such as $ 10,216 for nurses, to what Trump allegedly paid the year he took office: $ 750.
BILLIONAIRE OR BUST?
the Times The story raises new questions about whether Trump is really the man with the Midas touch as he claims, or an unfortunate spender who owes money to a lot of people.
He is the first president in years not to make his tax returns public, claiming that he cannot because he is being audited.
In his trademark cheeky style, he also once boasted that getting out of taxes “makes me smart.”
On Monday, he tweeted: “I paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation and tax credits.”
But according to the TimesTrump’s tax returns show that he achieved large-scale tax evasion in part because his supposedly successful businesses, particularly golf courses, are such money losers.
the Times said Trump benefited from a $ 72.9 million tax refund now subject to an official audit. He also reportedly took tax deductions on residences, airplanes, and $ 70,000 in hairstyling for television appearances.
And in a detail that raises the issue of potentially serious conflicts of interest, the Times He said the $ 421 million loans and debts personally guaranteed by Trump must be largely repaid in what would be his second term.
A former Democratic presidential candidate, billionaire Tom Steyer, tweeted that in 2017 he paid $ 32 million in federal taxes. Trump is “a cheater, and he sucks at business. In November he goes from the White House to the latrine,” he wrote.
DEMAND FOR DRUG TESTING
Even without the new fuel of tax history, Tuesday’s Trump-Biden debate was destined to be a brutal affair.
Trump is stepping up his smear of his longtime rival’s mental state. One of his new phrases is that Biden “doesn’t know he’s alive.”
And as the debate approaches, Trump has said that both should take a drug test.
“Joe Biden just announced that he won’t accept a drug test. Wow, I wonder why.” Trump tweeted on Monday.
When asked by reporters about the lawsuit over the weekend, Biden laughed before declining to comment.
Trump tried on Monday to reinforce his claims that the government has responded strongly to the COVID-19 crisis, announcing the distribution of 150 million rapid tests that can give a result in 15 minutes.
More than 205,000 people in the United States have died from the virus, by far the highest death toll in the world.
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