I read he owes hundreds of millions to the Russians. I have not been able to verify that, but The Times reported that Trump is personally responsible for loans and other debts of $421 million, much of which comes due in the next four years. I
and this:
*Deutsche Bank: $364 million
The troubled German bank is Trump’s top lender and has been for years.
*## Ladder Capital: $282 million
Ladder Capital is not a traditional bank or a big name on Wall Street, but in the last several years it has joined Deutsche Bank as a main source of financing for Trump. In fact, since 2012, these two outfits have been the only ones to lend Trump money. One big issue with Trump’s loans from Ladder Capital is that he appears to be personally liable for at least $26 million of the debt.
and this:
It is a conclusion that even Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has appeared to confirm, saying in 2008—after the Trump Organization was prospering again—that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”
Yes, trump is now still under audit by the IRS, under his very own claim. And the IRS does not publicize a Civil fraud penalty, so we wouldnt know about that anyway. So, at the very least- according to trump himself- his tax returns are so fishy as to be under audit for several years.
Indicting a sitting president for criminal tax fraud is something not done likely, and we likely wouldnt hear about it under trump left office.
And i will tell you now that if a indictment is threatened, the IRS is almost always willing to settle for a signed admission of Civil fraud and a agreement of the amount due. So we may never hear of it.
There is a lot of stuff to write off for book sales, but a smart man running for office would cut out most of the grey area stuff. That’s one difference between Obama and trump.
Of course Obama has a higher net worth than Trump. I have a higher net worth than Trump. A nomadic llama herdsman in an uncontacted region of South America has a higher net worth than Trump. I strongly suspect that every single human being on the planet, living or dead, in all of history has a higher net worth than Trump. Getting a net worth as low as negative half a billion dollars is a singularly impressive achievement.
Damn, dude. Now I have to clean my screen. A nomadic llama herdsman in an uncontacted region of South America has a higher net worth than Trump. Comedy gold.
In fact, Trump is a multibillionaire, worth $2.5 billion, by our count. His portfolio, which includes commercial buildings, golf properties and branding businesses, is worth an estimated $3.66 billion before debt. The president has a fair amount of leverage—adding up to a roughly $1.13 billion—but not enough to drag his net worth below a billion dollars.
ETA from Forbes
The Times was able to track down the payment to Ivanka because it exactly matched the write-off on Daddy’s returns. Trump wrote off another $25 million in consulting fees between 2010 and 2018. When that’s fully investigated, will anyone be surprised if Don jr. and Eric were double-dipping as well?
Though that third point was criticized on the basis that Trump is out of the casino business, it still holds true because he is very much still in the hotel/golf-resort business. And therefore he has a personal incentive to lie about the pandemic’s severity.
Aside from that:
I agree with those who’ve said that Biden should hit Trump hard on the “FAILURE AS A BUSINESSMAN” front. Sure, Trump owns some real estate— but it’s questionable whether the sale of all of it would be enough to cover his personal debts. And meanwhile, those debts make him a major national-security risk.
So, hit him on being #LoserTrump and #FailureTrump. The facts support it.
But it’s also true that the ‘paid no taxes or very little in taxes’ facts can reach some voters. As has been noted in this thread, Trump for years has joined with other Republicans in decrying “freeloading” poor people and immigrants who pay little or nothing in Federal income taxes.
So, who’s the biggest Freeloader of all? That’s right, Donald “Moocher” Trump.
Hit that hard, too. There’s no reason not to have two campaign themes based on these tax returns—which, as previously noted, Trump hasn’t called fake. They are real, and he is simultaneously a Business Failure, and a Moocher / Freeloader / Parasite.
And considering banks and lenders in the United States would have to be out of their fucking minds to lend him anything more than beer money (knowing they won’t see that again), we can be sure that the money isn’t coming from someone here.
Really, that is the issue. His tax avoidance is a distraction (although it might not be once the IRS gets involved in a year or two). The real issue is, where is he getting his cash from? Who is he getting cash from?
Look, tax returns by themselves don’t show us all of Trump’s finances - we know that, so people can stop using that canard to defend him. What tax returns do is prompt people with a mind that is switched on to start asking some questions.
The president of the United States is beholden to foreign interests. That is the issue. How many of our national secrets has he been blackmailed into giving away? Does Russia know our nuclear codes? Our launch sequence? Do they know where our spies are? Who they are?
