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WASHINGTON: A report that Donald Trump paid little to no federal income tax in recent years sparked outrage on Monday (September 28), from wealthy Democrats to teachers and cafeteria workers who took to social media to assert they had paid more taxes than the United States. President.
The hashtag #IPaidMoreTaxesThanDonaldTrump began to be trending on Monday, while the election campaign of Democratic rival Joe Biden, taking advantage of the backlash, released a pin with the words: “I paid more in taxes than Donald Trump.”
“In 2017, I paid $ 32 million more in federal taxes than Donald Trump,” Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmentalist and fierce critic of the president, wrote on Twitter.
Trump defended his record Monday after the New York Times reported that he had paid just $ 750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, after years of reporting large losses from his business ventures.
READ: What Trump’s taxes are reported to show
In a series of posts on Twitter, the Republican president said he had paid “many millions of dollars in taxes” and had far more assets than debts. It did not provide evidence or promise to release any financial statements before the November 3 presidential election.
It is unclear if the events will affect the way Americans vote. Trump’s posts on Twitter received tens of thousands of “likes” as his followers spoke out in his defense.
George Callas, managing director of the law firm Steptoe LLP and a former Republican tax advisor in the US House of Representatives, criticized the leak of confidential tax information, although he acknowledged that some wealthy people take advantage of loopholes.
“As a group, the wealthiest pay a much higher share of their income in federal taxes than others. But there is a subset that avoids paying too much, if at all,” Callas wrote on Twitter.
READ: New Adviser Gives Trump Bad Information About Coronavirus, Top US Officials Say.
Polly Hartsook, 68, who runs a farm with her husband in Ringgold County, Iowa, said the tax system was written to help “job creators.”
“I guess Donald Trump didn’t prepare his tax returns, his tax preparers did,” said Hartsook, who said he voted for Trump in 2016 and will do so again.
“Instead of giving his money to the Treasury, Trump reinvests his money in things that give other people jobs.”
For others, the idea that the real estate mogul had paid so little in taxes struck a chord.
Amy Grandinetti, 48, a nurse from Columbus, Ohio, who said she endorsed Biden in November, described Trump’s tax evasion as “insane.”
“He has been living outside the system his entire life,” he said. “This should give the average American a serious pause.”
