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Trump: tax returns and wealth — 25 Comments

  1. Great work Neo!

    I knew about that lawsuit but the details are critical.

    Please forward this research to the people asking questions tonight and every single host at Fox. I also think he is on Morning Joe tomorrow. His friends Joe and Mikka can ask him about this and “his own personal Vietnam.”

  2. One easy question: Mr. Trump is it true that you attribute $3 billion of your net worth to the value of your name alone?

    Aside: A brand name – like Coke – has a real accounting and financial value – that can be measured by markets. The brand name “Trump” can have money value but it is not $3 billion. I personally think his name is Mudd.

    Lay people will not know this stuff and think it is crazy.

  3. What I remember is that Harry Reid said that he had information that Romney had not paid any taxes for several years. It was a blatant lie and Reid knew it. But it became a big issue and was part of the ammunition the dems used to portray Romney as too rich to be in touch with the average person. Maybe Romney, who I assume is not for Trump, is using the same tactic. I would not expect Romney to do something like this, but politics ain’t bean bag.

  4. Romney: “Perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he’s been telling us he’s been doing.”

    If the details on taxes don’t dent the enthusiasm of his supporters, I would think if it’s shown he’s not really given much to vets or the disabled that that should definitely give them pause. Especially coupled with the news also being pushed right now that he applied for a lot of “H” visas rather than hiring Americans.

  5. J.J.,
    I don’t think Romney would have done this if Trump hadn’t lied so often. He is also willing to take some of Trump’s heat off the candidates.

  6. Smoke and mirrors. Will any of it matter? The Trumpsters seemed to be locked in emotionally, and information is irrelevant to them at this point.

    On another blog, in which I expressed my objections to Trump, I was challenged to state whether I would vote for him if he were the nominee. I refused that commitment; but, there is the cadre who will rally around if he looks to have it in hand as the process goes forward–the bandwagon crowd.

    I don’t even know what a successful outcome to the GOP primaries would look like. As I told my inquisitor, I am no fan of Bloomberg’s, but I do not think he would lead the country to ruin. That may be our best hope if this continues on the present course. He said a vote for Bloomberg wold be a de facto vote for Hillary. May take that risk.

    I will comment that I saw Senator Cruz on the Kelly special last night. He is one impressive intellect and communicator. He spoke to the issues clearly and without equivocating. A shame that so much of the establishment will seemingly fight tooth and nail to deny him support.

  7. Well, it’s certainly refreshing to see Romney has learned how to get down in the mud. It’s a shame he didn’t learn that lesson back in 2012 when he was still relevant. Still, without any proof he’s just spitballing and needs to put up or shut up. I’m much more interested in who has conscripted him to be the GOPe’s attack dog du jour.

  8. Mitt is a proxy for Marco. Rubio refuses to attack Trump. It is up to Ted tonight. The election is on the line for Cruz. He needs to dish the dirt.

  9. Inkraven:

    I figured the Romney attacks would come; this post is not a re-hashing of anything about Romney. The facts don’t depend on who said what and why. The facts are facts, and since it’s Trump we are looking at now, they are relevant.

    My focus is on the information I offered in this post.

    Interesting that you ignore those. To me, those are the real issue.

    Instead you seem to be “much more interested in who has conscripted [Romney] to be the GOPe’s attack dog du jour.”

  10. J.J.:

    My point is that I don’t think this is a lie. There is evidence for it, whether Romney knew it or not.

    Plus, there is a difference between what Reid said and what Romney said. Romney explicitly said he had no evidence, and he is just wondering because Trump has been dragging his heels.

    Reid made up some false “evidence.” That’s a whole nother ball game.

  11. “Q: When you publicly state what you’re worth, what do you base that number on?

    A: I would say it’s my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked. And as I say, it varies.”

    He’s telling his ‘truth’ and, his sense of truth varies in accordance with his subjective (no objective standard of reference) perceptions of himself and the situation’s current circumstance.

    Interestingly, such an individual cannot, in the conventional sense, lie because nothing he says is intentionally ‘untrue’, since truth is whatever he perceives it to be in that moment.

  12. Okay, here was my thinking:
    1) We haven’t heard from Mitt Romney for 4 years, ever since he lost his election. Why are we suddenly hearing from him now?

    2) Why is he attacking another Republican, and specifically why is he attacking the leading candidate? Is this a new thing, bringing up your artillery and targeting your own side?

    3) Mitt’s comments are nothing by speculation, he had NOTHING concrete, just flinging sh*t on the wall.

    The only conclusion is the for some reason Romney was directed to lob grenades to try to take out Trump.

    4) WTF cares about Trumps tax returns? We know he is rich, and we know just where his money comes from. It’s not that hard to google “trump buildings”.

  13. There is no smoking gun that will deter the most fervent Trumpsters from their adoration of the donald. But knocking off 20 percent of his less enthusiastic supporters is crucial. And, yes Cruz needs to stop going after Rubio and Rubio after Cruz. Time to tag team Trump and goad him into a rabid dog biting at its own tail. This is especially in Rubio’s self interests as polls show Trump ahead in Florida, while Cruz has a comfortable lead in Texas. There will be plenty of time for them to resume their feud once Trump is torpedoed.

  14. fred:

    Of course Romney is against Trump and wants to bring out damaging information. That doesn’t make the information wrong—and my point is that, although Romney did not cite the evidence I presented here, it’s out there and he probably knows it. I would guess he knows it; if he doesn’t, he should, and so should all the candidates.

    I certainly knew it. I certainly knew there are legions of credible allegations that Trump is way underestimating his financial holdings. That’s been known for years. All Romney probably did (or other people did) is to put 2 and 2 together. Trump is probably inflating his worth, perhaps by a lot. Trump has stalled on releasing his taxes. It’s certainly a logical conclusion and is NOT just flinging stuff at a wall. All Trump has to do is do what many candidates do and release them.

    As for why we should care—tax returns have been a huge issue in campaigns for many years. And this should be especially true for Trump, whose record pretty much entirely consists of his claims about his great business success.

    It’s not rocket science.

  15. parker:

    I absolutely agree that Trump’s strongest supporters will not care at all. Many of them wouldn’t care even if his money were proven to have been acquired through bank robbery. But I also think some Trump supporters who are not quite as immovable might care if he’s a lot less rich than he says.

  16. Trump’s financial wealth is of importance for two reasons. First, has he exaggerated or even worse, lied? A small amount of exaggeration can be forgiven but outright lies are a huge red flag.

    Liars lie either to gain advantage or to escape consequence. That goes to character. A man lacking in character cannot be trusted to fulfill his promises.

    Secondly, if he’s lied it goes to his credibility, when he claims that his wealth assures voters that he can’t be bought. A man who tells blatant lies has no ethical barrier to being bought.

  17. Is Trump the Zaphod Beeblbrox of our time? The description below is from Wikipedia about the character from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

    He was briefly the President of the Galaxy (a role that involves no power whatsoever, and merely requires the incumbent to attract attention so no one wonders who’s really in charge, a role for which Zaphod was perfectly suited).

    As a character, Zaphod is hedonistic and irresponsible, narcissistic almost to the point of solipsism, and often extremely insensitive to the feelings of those around him. In the books and radio series, he is nevertheless quite charismatic which causes many characters to ignore his other flaws

  18. 1) We haven’t heard from Mitt Romney for 4 years, ever since he lost his election. Why are we suddenly hearing from him now?
    ——————

    Not true. Romney has spoken up from time to time on various issues. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that he’s gotten involved in the 2016 campaign. But this isn’t the first time that we’ve heard from him over the last four years.

  19. Geoffry Brittian:

    I also refer to Sir Donald (the brave) as Sir Humpty-Trumpty because as you noticed his words mean exactly what he says they are no more no less. Not quite the quote. Have to look up Lewis Carrol.

  20. Trump said tonight that he is being audited and can’t release his tax returns because of that. Plausible? Maybe.

    Is someone who is auditing him (IRS) or one of his tax accountants leaking? Is there info being whispered about because of the leaks? That also doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility.

  21. I think Romney knows that Trump was being audited and knew he would not be able to release his returns until after he’d been through the audit. Who in the heck would release taxes that are under an audit? What if he has to make adjustments?

    He mentioned last night that he’s been audited every year for the last 12 years (I think it was). That seems pretty nuts.

    Did you see the stack of papers that makes up his taxes? It was well above his head.

    Besides, personal income taxes will not reveal anything about personal wealth. They only capture income for a year. That’s it. So the only thing he could be ‘hiding’ would be charitable donations or questionable write-offs. I’m guessing he probably gave more or less equally to causes on both sides. Just like he did with political contributions. He mostly donated to Republicans, but gave a fair share to Democrats.

  22. I do not think tax returns of candidates belong in the public square. Period. Who was it that first demanded release?
    From efile.com we have this:
    “The practice of releasing tax returns when running for office didn’t become commonplace until the late 1960’s, which is also when presidential candidates, and not just presidents, began to routinely release their income tax returns to the public. In the runup to the 1968 presidential election, George Romney, a governor of Michigan at the time, released 12 years of his tax returns from 1955-1966 after being pressed on the topic by reporters. This set the precedent for presidential candidates to release their tax returns.”

    Being pressed by reporters, huh? A “fat cat” being pressed caved in out of misplaced hope. The reporters then were not biased. Nooo. Romney was just too prosperous, too successful for them, and the reporters hoped to embarrass (and harm) him.
    Started in 1968, huh? Just another lovely product of the 1960s.
    Well, let us see what today’s reporters say about Hillary’s. I can hear the crickets tuning up now.

  23. K-E:

    All the legal commentary I’ve heard about it (which, granted, is about 3 people so far) has stated that an audit would not be a bar to releasing his tax forms.

    Also, the demand is not about current taxes—back taxes would do. So I believe the audit thing is a red herring.

    What’s more, if he’s been audited for 12 years, why didn’t he say so when he was talking to Hugh Hewitt a year ago and promised to release his taxes? If he already knew he was being audited and would be audited, why make that promise?

    Could it be because being truthful is not something Trump is interested in?

  24. Trump is rich. Everybody knows that. Seeing his tax returns won’t give anybody any important information that we don’t already know.

    What he should have said is “go pound sand.” Actually, that’s what he said, just politely.

    Out here in the real world, nobody cares about his — or any other candidates — tax returns. What people care about is their stated positions and if we think they’ll try to do what they say.

    Control illegal immigration.
    Limit immigration of Moslems.

    Rubio is dead because he fails on #1.

    Okay, “build a wall”. Easy to say, but since when has Trump ever built anything big, right?

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