Thursday, September 15, 2016
Donald Trump Must Be Hiding Something Really, Really Bad.
Why doesn't Trump release his tax returns as every single candidate who has ever run for the presidency has, going all the way back to Richard Nixon.
People who have something to hide, hide that something, and Trump is hiding something from the American people. He's not being transparent.
Hillary Clinton released her tax returns that go back decades.
Why hasn't Trump?
The IRS has called Trump out on his blatant lies about being audited as the excuse for not releasing his taxes. The IRS has said that is simply not true.
Trump lied about his reasons for not releasing his taxes.
Why does he have to continue to lie and hide them from the American people?
What's Donald Trump hiding? It must be really, really bad.
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10 comments:
Eugene Robinson:
"Reasons to wonder" normally do not qualify as legitimate fodder for journalism, but these are not normal circumstances. Trump has broken with four decades of precedent and adamantly refused to let voters see his tax returns. His excuse — that he is under audit — is bogus. Given his history as a swashbuckling wheeler-dealer, including four corporate bankruptcies, there are legitimate questions about his finances. Yet he stonewalls, knowing that speculation does not qualify as proof.
Here's what we know. In July, Trump said in a tweet that he has "ZERO investments in Russia." If this is true, the more relevant question may be the extent to which Russian oligarchs, by definition beholden to Putin, have investments in Trump and his empire.
In 2008, Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., said at a New York real estate conference that "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets." Referring to the Trump Organization, where he works with his father, he added that "we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."
That boast would make perfect sense. Following the bankruptcy of Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004 — which involved three casinos in Atlantic City and one in Indiana, and allowed Trump to get out from under an estimated $1.8 billion in debt — banks became wary of lending to Trump, according to widespread reports.
A 2010 federal lawsuit alleged that much of the money that financed the Trump SoHo luxury hotel development in Manhattan, which broke ground in 2006, came from a shadowy Iceland-based corporate entity. The suit alleges that "the money behind" the firm was "mostly Russian," and that the Russians involved "were in favor with Putin."
Trump was not charged with any wrongdoing in the suit, but the suit does strongly suggest that if traditional lenders were reluctant to get involved with Trump, Russian money had no such compunctions.
Which raises an obvious question: To what extent are Trump and the Trump Organization dependent on Russian investment? We have no way of knowing. Examination of Trump's tax returns might provide the answer.
He's hiding that he's really not that rich. And he really hates it when people suggest that.
There's also this, Kevin:
The truth, as several columnists and reporters have painstakingly shown since the first hack of a Clinton-affiliated group took place in late May or early June, is that several of Trump’s businesses outside of Russia are entangled with Russian financiers inside Putin’s circle.
So, yes, it’s true that Trump has failed to land a business venture inside Russia. But the real truth is that, as major banks in America stopped lending him money following his many bankruptcies, the Trump organization was forced to seek financing from non-traditional institutions. Several had direct ties to Russian financial interests in ways that have raised eyebrows.
"Trump is the first since 1976 to refuse to release his tax returns. He has declined to provide documentation of the “tens of millions” of dollars he claims to have donated to charity. He has yet to release a comprehensive accounting of his health. And, while Wednesday’s letter about Melania Trump’s immigration from her home country offers a few new details, there is no documentation to back up the claims.
At the same time, Trump and his aides are criticizing rival Hillary Clinton as secretive and demanding more information from her about her emails and health. Many Democrats also see Trump’s refusal to release basic information as hypocritical since for years, he was one of the loudest voices demanding that President Obama release his birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii and qualified to be president. Trump also called on Obama to release his college applications, school transcripts and passport applications."
And what's more frustrating is that many in the media are NOT CALLING HIM OUT ON IT. They are too busy concern-trolling Hillary and letting Trump slide (shades of 2000 with their kid glove treatment of Bush). The media has ignored Kurt Eichenwald's Newsweek piece on Trump as well as the articles in the Washington Post showing that Trump is, well, an empty shell.
And they have the gall to claim that Hillary isn't transparent.
Up is down, black is white. Jesus.
Marc, the media is calling him out on this. Every major network has people making hay on this, as do the cable networks, as do most major print outlets. What more can they do? The problem is that people don't care. Anyone thumbing their nose at the establishment is good news to them.
It will be interesting to see the questions about this at the debates.
I for one wonder why Obama has not just directed the IRS to publicly drop the audit. Surely the US Government could forgo one year of taxes from Donald Trump in return for removing his stated reason for withholding them.
So many possibilities ...
1. Connections to Russia
2. Shady charitable contributions
3. Lower than broadcast income
4. All of the above
It certainly isn't being heard over the noise about Clinton's health.
For now, he'll probably milk the idea the he's being harassed.
Thanks for that follow-up, Shaw. Is "non-traditional institutions" a euphemism for Russian mafia? Hope they're as understanding about bankruptcy as those US banks.
I suspect Trump's greatest fear is what it would do to his overblown ego if the public was to find out he is worth a small fraction of what he wants the world to think he is.
ORAXX
It is possible (but I doubt it) that he is hiding nothing. He just keeps getting more and more press about it while being able to avoid real,problems and real issues. It's called manipulation of the press, something he is an expert at.
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