File photo of Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump, also a billionaire, has paid no income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years.
- News18.com
- Last update: September 28, 2020 2:07 PM IST
- FOLLOW US:
US President Donald Trump, also a billionaire, has paid no income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years. While millions of Americans, who were probably struggling to make ends meet and had multiple jobs to pay their bills, were paying thousands of dollars in taxes, POTUS managed to avoid paying income taxes for more than a decade.
According to a scathing report in The New York Times, Trump paid just $ 750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and in his first year in the White House. Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax returns and is the only president in modern times who has not made them public, did not pay federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years. He campaigned for a position as a billionaire real estate mogul and successful businessman.
READ: Trump paid $ 750 in US income taxes. In 2016 and 2017, he skipped 10 times in the last 15 years
READ: 5 takeaways from the NY Times report on Trump’s tax returns
At a press conference at the White House, Trump dismissed the report as fake news and said he paid taxes, although he did not elaborate. The disclosure, which the Times says comes from tax return data it collected over two decades, comes at a crucial time before the first presidential debate on Tuesday and weeks before a divisive election against Democrat Joe Biden.
The president promised that all information about his taxes will be disclosed. But he did not offer a timeline for disclosure and made similar promises during the 2016 campaign that he never delivered. In fact, the president has filed legal challenges against those seeking access to his returns, including the US House, which is demanding access to Trump’s tax returns as part of congressional oversight.
Shortly after the revelation, enraged Americans flooded Twitter with posts about how they paid more taxes than Trump, even though they probably earned a fraction of what he did as a real estate giant. In fact, American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to share how she had paid thousands of dollars in taxes as a waitress. “Donald Trump has never cared about our country more than he cares about himself. A walking scam,” he wrote in the tweet.
In 2016 and 2017, I paid thousands of dollars a year in taxes * as a bartender. * Trump paid $ 750. He did less to fund our communities than waitresses and undocumented immigrants. Donald Trump has never cared about our country more than he cares. for the same. A walking scam. https://t.co/VZChbp8htu
– Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 28, 2020
Raise your hand if you paid more taxes than Donald Trump
– kathryn gallagher (@kathryng) September 28, 2020
This is what others have to say:
I am an immigrant and graduate student, having only spent a year and a half in the United States so far. I can’t vote, I don’t have unemployment, but I have paid more income taxes than Donald Trump ♂️ https://t.co/e4jSy4ZE7K
– Katharin Tai (@Whitey_chan) September 28, 2020
Basically, I’ve spent more on tests than Trump paid in taxes.
– EEE Moin MD, MBE (@eemoin) September 27, 2020
My son paid more taxes as a part-time student than Trump! And you still don’t qualify for the COVID19 student relief program !!
– Mesa (@ Endgame2021) September 27, 2020
As a teaching assistant graduate student living on beer-fueled mac and cheese in the 1980s, I paid more taxes than Trump in 2016 and 2017.
– Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) September 28, 2020
During his first general election debate against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton said that perhaps Trump was not releasing his tax returns because he had not paid anything in federal taxes. Trump interrupted her to say, “That makes me smart.”
.
