The best president Daddy could buy
As I document in my new book, “Trump Must Go,” one thing we know about Donald Trump: He’s a pathological liar. He lies so often about so many issues that several media outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, have an entire team of reporters that do nothing but track Trump’s lies.
In their latest report, dated August 1, the Post documents 4,229 lies Trump has told since taking the oath of office. Some days he lies more than others — the Times listed 79 false and misleading claims on July 5 alone — but that still adds up to 7.6 lies a day, some of which we’ll never forget.
Among the more notable Trump whoppers: He attracted the biggest inauguration crowd ever. He had the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan. He’s delivered the biggest tax cut in history. Barack Obama tapped his phones at Trump Tower. Thousands of Democrats were bused from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to vote in the 2016 Republican primary. Lies, lies, lies.
But, thanks to the New York Times, now we discover perhaps the biggest Donald Trump lie of all. Remember his boasts that “I built what I built myself” and “I’m a self-made billionaire?” According to the myth Trump has promoted his entire life, he started out with a teenyweeny loan of one million dollars from his father — and grew that into a business empire worth $10 billion.
It sounds like the classic, (almost) rags-to-riches American story. Except it’s all a lie. As reported by the Times, after examining over 100,000 Trump business documents, that loan was only the first of many loans Fred Trump made to his son. Altogether, Fred set up 295 different streams of revenue for shoveling money to Donald, including: $20.6 million in cash from the Starrett City housing development; $7.8 million interest on loans; $6.4 million in cash gifts; and $966,911 on fees paid by tenants for air-conditioners.
Records uncovered by the Times show that daddy Fred started funneling money to son Donald when he was still a toddler. At the age of 3, Donald was receiving $200,000 a year. By the time he was 8 years old, he was a millionaire. By the time he was 29, he had collected nearly $9 million from his father. In the end, it was far from a measly one million dollar loan that Trump received from his father. Through a variety of questionable business deals, Fred actually handed Donald a whopping total of $413 million.
Making matters even worse is the fact that father and son built their real estate empire largely with federal funds, through the Section 8 housing program, and then turned around and paid very little in federal taxes. Again, as reported by the Times, Fred and Mary Trump transferred well over $1 billion to their children, which, under the 55 percent gifts tax at the time, would have triggered $550 million in taxes. They actually paid only $52.2 million, or 5 percent.
It adds up, says the Times, to a shocking combination of phony financial schemes, tax evasion and outright fraud which Fred Trump started and which Donald Trump continued in his own real estate dealings after his parents’ death. In 1976, he bragged in a New York Times profile that he was worth “more than $200 million.” On his tax returns that same year, he reported a taxable income of $24,594.
What’s stunning is how much Trump, father and son, were able to cheat on their taxes, even commit likely financial crimes, and get away with it. And, sadly, most experts agree that, the statute of limitations having expired, it’s too late to go after the corrupt Trump empire now.
In response, the Trump White House issued its textbook non-denial denial. Without confirming or denying the evidence of massive fraud, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the story “boring” and insisted the Times owed President Trump an apology. Conservative commentators dismissed it as a report nobody cares about.
Nonsense. Americans should care about the Times expose because it proves that the entire life story of Donald Trump — sold by him and bought lock, stock and barrel by the media — is false. He’s not a self-made man. He’s a self-made sham. The only Americans not troubled by that are those who accept without reservation the fact that their president is a total fraud.
But at least now we know why Donald Trump won’t release his tax returns.
Bill Press is syndicated by Tribune Content Agency. His email address is bill@billpress.com.