Last night the New York Times released a ‘blockbuster’ article on Trump’s taxes from many, many years ago. In it they detailed that Trump was billions in debt from the late 80s into the mid 90’s. They said they didn’t get access to his actual taxes, but rather tax data from someone who had access to them.
This morning Trump took to Twitter to explain how things worked back then as a real estate developer, but also made clear that their article was a “highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!”:
Real estate developers in the 1980’s & 1990’s, more than 30 years ago, were entitled to massive write offs and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show losses and tax losses in almost all cases. Much was non monetary. Sometimes considered “tax shelter,” ......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
….you would get it by building, or even buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes….almost all real estate developers did – and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport. Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
A lot of people are noting on Twitter that the information in the NY Times article is nothing new.
One person tweeted this video of Trump explaining how he’d used to be billions in debt:
Hahaha!! Hey @nytimes maybe you should have watched this video first before your stupid “blockbuster” story about Trump’s taxes in which YEARS ago @realDonaldTrump explains how he was billions of dollars in debt but made a comeback. pic.twitter.com/P2lHBAR6ai #maga #tcot
— Ned Ryun (@nedryun) May 8, 2019
Here’s another call this old news:
I’m all for seeing Trump’s tax records, but I’m confused as to why it’s being portrayed as new or surprising that he endured major financial turmoil in the late 80s / early 90s. Everyone has known this forever. The tabloids covered it breathlessly at the time pic.twitter.com/uQnRMGcNji
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 8, 2019
Trump wrote a book about the turmoil and incorporated it into his (largely phony) public image. In the first episode of The Apprentice, Trump said: “About 13 years ago, I was seriously in trouble. I was billions of dollars in debt.” So… yeah. None of this was really hidden pic.twitter.com/fnGvWlChuN
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 8, 2019
One person even noted that the NY Times themselves ran some of this ‘blockbuster’ information back in 2016:
The New York Times on Oct 1, **2016**
Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, obtained by The New York Times show. pic.twitter.com/NG3KrKE1dP
— mad-liberals (@mad_liberals) May 8, 2019
I’m not saying there wasn’t anything new in the Times article, but their main premise wasn’t new at all.
But I’m sure they knew that already. This was more likely just an attempt to cash in on the TDS that is rampant on the left in order to get more subscriptions and to keep the ones they already have.