On Tuesday evening The New York Times published portions of Donald Trump’s tax returns covering the period from 1985 to 1994. During those years, Trump lost more than $1.17 billion. That’s not just a massive loss, it’s the biggest reported loss in the nation. For one of those years, Trump’s reported loss was twice that of any other individual. So it’s not surprising that as of Wednesday morning, #BillionDollarLoser and #BiggestLoserTrump were the top two trending items on Twitter.
But Trump had a response. In a pair of Wednesday tweets, Trump claimed that he didn’t actually lose more than a billion dollars. He just took a billion dollars in write offs. According to Trump, real estate developers were “entitled to massive write offs and depreciation” that allowed him to report big negative numbers for tax purposes.
You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes....almost all real estate developers did - and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport.
So … Trump says he didn’t lose a billion. He just cheated America out of taxes on $1 billion through the “sport” of tax fraud. Not surprisingly, after Trump’s tweet, the top trends were joined by #TaxFraud and #TrumpIsAFraud.
There’s only about 1.17 billion things wrong with Trump’s claim. First, he says that other real estate developers did the same. They didn’t. Not only were Trump’s reported losses far above those of any other developer, the Times article included information from his father’s tax returns. While Donald was drowning in red ink, his father was turning a profit. If butchering your tax forms for profit was a sport, Fred Trump wasn’t playing.
The other thing that guts Trump’s claim that he was only cheating America to the tune of ten figures, is that the losses he reported were not from buying up ritzy Manhattan real estate for the future, but operating losses at his soon-to-be-bankrupt Atlantic City casinos. Trump wasn’t being shifty. He was just a giant, giant loser.
It’s fascinating that Donald Trump believes that claiming he cheated the U.S. out of tax funds is better than admitting that he was simply a bad businessman; though it’s unlikely he’ll follow that claim by ordering the IRS to foreclose on Mar-a-Lago. But as Bloomberg notes, Trump’s claims about his business acumen, negotiating skills, and giant net worth have always been a lie.
In the period that was covered by the tax returns, not only was Trump not secretly making money somewhere, he was so close to personal bankruptcy, and so radioactive to banks, that he had to plead for a $30 million loan from his brother and sister. As collateral for that loan, Trump turned to the same place he got every other handout in his life—his father. Trump actually borrowed against his share of the inheritance he expected on Fred Trump’s death. Trump was forced to admit all this under oath when he tried to sue the reporter who published the story. Because not only is Trump a massive loser in business, he’s also a frequent loser in court—something all those people refusing congressional subpoenas might want to keep in mind.
Fred Trump directly loaned his son over $60 million, bailing him out again and again. But while Fred continued to run profits … they couldn’t match the losses being racked up by Donald.
Meanwhile, at Fox & Friends, the hosts bragged that Trump’s massive losses showed that he was a “bold businessman” willing to take chances. Because, sure. Someone whose gut inspired them to take chances that made them the nation’s biggest loser over and over, is exactly who you would want making decisions in the White House.