The emperor has no clothes

Now it’s clear why Donald Trump fought so hard to keep his income tax returns secret: Despite boasts of massive wealth, despite hiking spending as president, he barely contributes to the federal treasury. More than two decades’ worth of returns The New York Times obtained show our self-described billionaire president paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, 16 times less than the average American’s $12,200 liability.

The man whose Fifth Ave. penthouse apartment features diamond and gold-encrusted doors, who owns a $100 million private jet and mansions, plural, paid zero — count ‘em, zero — dollars in federal income taxes in 11 of 18 years, despite earning hundreds of millions from licensing deals and investments.

The man who built his entire 2016 presidential campaign on the premise he’d run America like he ran his businesses told the government he lost $174.5 million on enterprises over the last 20 years. He earned more money pretending to be a tycoon on TV than actually being one.

The man making life or death national security decisions is $300 million in hock, with huge bills coming due in the next four years, to lenders unknown.

In a country where schoolteachers can’t deduct more than $250 spent on school supplies for their own students, Trump spent decades deploying legally dubious tax maneuvers to dodge liability, claiming $70,000 in haircuts, and thousands paid to criminal defense attorneys, as business expenses.

The man who in 2017 signed a tax bill limiting New Yorkers’ ability to deduct property taxes from their federal returns avoided $2.2 million in such taxes by claiming his massive Westchester estate, a family retreat, as an investment property.

Trump’s returns expose the plain truth: He is a desperate, dishonest operator who’s milking the presidency for personal profit instead of public good.