Fears surface over Trump debt
Following Times report, liability to blackmail on some minds
WASHINGTON — Revelations that President Donald Trump is personally liable for more than $400 million in debt are casting a shadow over his presidency.
Ethics experts say it raises national security concerns that he could be manipulated to sway U.S. policy by organizations or individuals to whom he’s indebted.
New scrutiny of Trump comes after The New York Times reported that tax records show he is personally carrying a staggering amount of debt, including more than $300 million in loans that will come due in the next four years.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-mass., was blunt about the potential implications.
“He may be vulnerable to financial blackmail from a hostile foreign power and God knows what else,”
Warren said.
The Times, citing the tax records it obtained, also revealed that Trump did not pay federal income tax in 11 of 18 years and paid just $750 each year for 2017 and 2018, as he claimed millions of dollars in business losses.
On Monday, top Democratic lawmakers called Trump’s tax avoidance galling but seized on his debt as perhaps more concerning.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC that “our responsibility is to protect and defend, and we have to make sure we know what exposure the president of the United States has and what an impact it has on national security decisions for our country.”
According to his latest financial disclosure statement, Trump reported that he had 14 loans on 12 properties.
Trump dismissed the Times report in a series of tweets Monday, saying, “The Fake News Media, just like
Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information & only bad intent.”
He said that he is entitled to take tax credits and account for depreciation and that, when extraordinary assets are included, he is extremely underleveraged and has “very little debt compared to the value of assets.”
Trump added that he may release a financial statement that spells out all assets, properties and debts.
During an appearance Monday, Trump ignored a reporter’s question about when he might release such a statement, and the White House would not comment on when he might follow through.
White House press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday that Democrats are replaying “the same playbook they tried in 2016, the same playbook that the American people rejected and will do so again.”