TRUMP THREATENS NFL’S TAX BREAKS

NON-PROFIT STATUS

WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to use federal tax law to penalize the National Football League over players who kneel in protest during the national anthem as he sought to escalate a political fight that has resonated with his conservative base.

In one of a series of combative early-morning tweets, Trump said that Congress should eliminate a law that has allowed the NFL central office to avoid paying taxes as a non-profit entity. “Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country?” he wrote. “Change tax law!”

The tax break for the NFL has been a point of controversy for years, and other conservatives have taken up the cause in recent weeks as the president has repeatedly assailed the league over the player protests. But the idea would be more about symbolism than impact. The tax break applies only to the central office, not the teams, which already pay taxes as for-profit organizations, and the NFL voluntarily gave up the tax exemption for its league office in 2015.

Trump on Tuesday also focused his fire again on Jemele Hill, the SportsCenter host on ESPN who previously called the president a white supremacist. Hill was suspended Monday for suggesting that fans boycott advertisers of the Dallas Cowboys after the team owner, Jerry Jones, threatened to bench players who knelt during the national anthem.

“With Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have ‘tanked,’ in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

ESPN has faced significant challenges recently and is now available in just under 88 million homes, compared with 100 million homes in 2011. In the first half of 2017, its prime-time ratings were up one per cent compared with 2016, although its total day ratings were down more than five per cent. But ESPN is still a ratings behemoth and still highly profitable. In the third quarter, it led fulltime cable networks in total day and prime-time ratings among key demographics, men ages 18 to 54.

The president continued to be animated by his fight with the sports world. He has enthusiastically kept up his attacks on the NFL, with which he has a long history of antagonism. A one-time owner of the New Jersey Generals in the upstart United States Football League, Trump persuaded other owners to sue the NFL using antitrust law. The USFL won the suit on the law but the jury awarded only $1 in damages — tripled to $3 by law — and Trump’s league folded.

The NFL’s tax exemption has long been controversial. The league’s 32 teams are for-profit businesses that pay taxes accordingly, but the central office became a non-profit organization decades ago. In response to the criticism, the league in 2015 voluntarily gave up its tax-exempt status because of what it called the “distraction.”