The Daily Caller is characterizing Trump writing about his billion dollar loss in 1997 as undercutting the New York Times’ expose about it:
The New York Times recently reported Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 tax returns, selling the documents as “never before disclosed” to the public.
But while Trump’s tax return documents have indeed “never before disclosed,” the Republican presidential nominee actually wrote about his near $1 billion loss in the first chapter of his 1997 book, “The Art of the Comeback.”
More interestingly, the NYT actually published the first chapter of Trump’s book, and wrote a review of it in December 1997.
But that’s kinda missing the point. It wasn’t the debt that was the story but the fact that he claimed it on his taxes and could have gone eighteen years without paying taxes because of it.
Here’s what he wrote:
One day, while walking down Fifth Avenue, hand in hand with Marla, I pointed across the street to a man holding a cup and with a Seeing Eye dog. I asked, “Do you know who that is?”
Marla said to me: “Yes, Donald. He’s a beggar. Isn’t it too bad? He looks so sad!”
I said, “You’re right. He’s a beggar, but he’s worth about $900 million more than me.” She looked at me and said, “What do you mean, Donald? How could he possibly be worth $900 million more than you?”
I said, “Let’s assume he’s worth nothing (only from the standpoint of dollars)–I’m worth minus $900 million.”
They’re right in pointing out that they wrote about his loss however.
The other point of the bombshell was that it was part of his taxes, which he refused to produce to the American public despite decades of that being the presidential tradition.
And finally, the New York Times has strongly implied that there are more documents to come…