President Trump’s taxes are full of red flags
President Donald Trump’s financial records, as disclosed by the New York Times on Sunday, paint a picture that would raise warning flags if Trump were applying for even a low-level government job. For a president, they pose urgent questions of national security.
The Times found that
Trump’s finances “are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed.” The Times’ documents do not identify to whomtrump owes this money or whether his creditors would offer him a deal - perhaps as a favor to the president, should he stay in office - potentially exposing him to a massive conflict of interest. It is also unclear who would bail out Trump should his creditors demand their cash; or, given the record of business failure the Times described, what mightmotivate them to do so.
“Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses,” the Times notes. “An adverse ruling could cost himmore than $100 million.” This raises questions about whether Trump is hoping for special treatment from the IRS or Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, which vets large tax refunds.
Trump’s apparently disastrous financial situation may help explain, at least in part, his unwillingness to assure the country that he will leave office if defeated at the polls. Clinging to power as major debts come due might help him. Also: His success as a self-promoter and television personality appears to have financed his extravagant business mistakes, and it would be harder for him to make more money in television if he leaves the Whitehouse an admitted loser.
The tax return information, while revealing, has many gaps, as the Times noted. It could be that the president painted an unrealistically dire picture on his tax returns in order to reduce his tax bill. Trump himself alleges that the Times story is misleading. There’s an obvious solution. When he ran for president in 2016, he promised to release his tax returns. He broke that promise. Now he could clear up questions by honoring his original pledge and finally releasing his tax documents, as have all other presidents and major candidates since President Richard Nixon’s time. Trump also should provide a full, independent accounting of his private financial affairs, including the identity of his creditors.
Lacking a record in public service, Trump built his appeal on his supposed business success. To evaluate this claim, voters should have been allowed to examine how he conducted himself in business, what conflicts of interest his sprawling entanglements would bring and what risks his presidency might pose. By continuing to hide and deny, Trump only advances the everstrengthening case that none of these questions can be answered favorably.