I’ve been determined to stand apart from the maddening gaggle of commentators who have been rushing to comment on every new scandal, gaffe, or poll this campaign season. Mind you, whenever I try to chat with friends abroad about goings-on in their respective countries, they invariably show more interest in chatting about the U.S presidential election; specifically, about the international spectacle that is Donald J. Trump.
Truth be told, Trump’s presidential campaign has been replete with so many surreal and unprecedented features that even I have been constrained to comment more than anticipated. His refusal to release his tax returns is one such feature.
Now comes this:
The New York Times obtained records from 1995 showing that Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss. The figure is so substantial that it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying federal income tax for 18 years…
[With respect to charitable contributions], Mr. Trump declined the opportunity to contribute to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Fund, the New Jersey Wildlife Conservation Fund or the Children’s Trust Fund.
(New York Times, October 2, 2016)
Actually, nobody should be surprised that Trump pays no federal income tax. After all, his lying efforts to dodge the long-established obligation of presidential nominees to release years of tax returns have dogged his campaign. Hillary, for example, has released nearly 40 years of returns.
But the biggest “tell” in this respect has been his brazen criticisms of billionaire hedge-fund managers for getting away without paying any income tax. For, just as Trump’s psychopathology predisposes him to being baited by any tweet, it compels him to criticize people for doing things he’s guilty of doing.
As a case in point, during her famous tax evasion trial, one of hotelier Leona Helmsley’s employees damned her to prison when he testified that she routinely exclaimed:
We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.
(New York Times, July 12, 1989)
Yet, during an interview on FOX News on August 21, 2007, here is the unconscionable way Trump projected his tax evasion schemes onto Helmsley:
[For the last two years of husband’s life] he was going through all of this hell because of things that she caused with her tax evasion…which was so foolish, because he was such a rich man.
She was a nasty woman, but she was a character. And she added something to New York, in a very perverse way.
It was unconscionable because he said this within hours of news breaking of Helmsley’s death, presaging the Neanderthal social graces he’s been displaying throughout this presidential campaign.
The point is that what Trump said about Helmsley could be said about him back then as surely as it can be said about him today – with respect to his foolish tax evasion, his nastiness, and the “something” he has added to the country … in a very perverse way.
Indeed, Trump personifies the modern-day version of Marie-Antoinette’s apocryphal quip, “let them eat cake.” Nothing demonstrates this quite like the way this P.T. Barnumesque buffoon plays his supporters for suckers:
Donald Trump clinched his third straight victory in the Nevada caucuses Tuesday, winning 46 percent of the vote. He celebrated with a rousing victory speech in which he boasted of his greed and his popularity with uneducated voters.
(Rolling Stone, February 24, 2016)
Psychological projection explains many of the attacks and claims Trump makes. This was clearly the case when he said during the first presidential debate on Monday that his temperament “was my strongest asset, maybe by far.”
After all, if he had good temperament, he would have spent the next few days making up for many missed opportunities to score debating points against Hillary. Instead, Trump spent the next five days name calling and fat shaming former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, thereby showing why his puerile and thin-skinned temperament is in fact his weakest asset.
By the way, Trump is making fools and liars of his campaign staffers, including his children — who keep promising anxious supporters that he will soon pivot to begin acting presidential. If he can’t “act presidential” during his campaign, however, it strains credulity to think he’d ever “be presidential” … if elected
To be fair, though, many rich people and corporations seem to think it’s only for “little people” to pay taxes.
Death and taxes are supposed to be two certainties of life. But a few companies have at least escaped the taxes part.
There are 27 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500, including telecom firm Level 3 Communications (LVLT), airline United Continental (UAL) and automaker General Motors (GM), that reported paying no income tax expense in 2015 despite reporting pre-tax profits.
(USA TODAY, March 7, 2016)
Of course, as is the case with many laws that favor the rich at the expense of the poor, the real scandal is that tax avoidance schemes are entirely legal.
But I would be remiss not to note that, whatever you think of Helmsley, she never publicly chastised fifty percent of the American people for being too poor (to qualify) to pay federal income taxes. Trump did. Which is why his now-evident hypocrisy in doing so is so, well, rich.
That said, this October surprise is no surprise to me at all. For here in part is what I wrote over five months ago in “Hackers Leak Trump’s Tax Returns…?” May 12, 2016.
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[Trumps refusal to release his tax returns] is, or should be, disqualifying – to any voter with common sense, that is…
Trump has fueled his campaign with nothing but blather, bluster, and bravado about how his acquisition of “huge” wealth makes him uniquely qualified to be president. To honor what little integrity remains in their profession, journalists should force Trump to prove it.
After all, by his own measure, his refusal to release his tax returns is rather like a doctor refusing to present his medical qualifications. Which, of course, is why doctors plaster their office walls with framed copies of all manner of licenses and degrees.
Trust me, if his tax returns showed that he is as wealthy and charitable as he claims, Trump would be distributing them like campaign flyers. But it speaks volumes that Dishonest Donald is failing the test for honesty, which Richard “I-am-not-a-crook” Nixon set by releasing his tax returns. And it’s noteworthy that Nixon did so even while the IRS was auditing him…
Frankly, Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns reeks of so much hypocrisy, it must fail the smell test even of gullible Republicans who already have their noses way up his bloviating ass.
But, notwithstanding what hackers like Anonymous might do, I suspect we’re in for an October surprise. Because I can’t believe the IRS would allow him to get away with this refusal by claiming it not only unfairly targets him for yearly audits, but also takes forever to complete each one.
Stay tuned.
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Sure enough, here we are. Except that, as revealing as it might be, Trump’s tax return from twenty years ago is not the October surprise I had in mind.
Therefore, I remain hopeful that a hacker or an IRS whistleblower will leak more recent returns in the public interest.
On the other hand, I am truly heartened that so many Republican-leaning newspapers are breaking ranks by either endorsing Hillary or urging Republicans to vote for anybody but Trump:
Another day, another endorsement for Hillary Clinton from a conservative newspaper editorial board…
A few days after the Arizona Republic endorsed its first Democratic presidential candidate in its 126-year history, the San Diego Union-Tribune followed suit for the first time in its 148 years [citing] the litany of reasons why Donald Trump shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office.
(Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2016)
Of course, Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns is the least of those reasons. Moreover, it’s plain for all to see that a “President Trump” would lead America down an Orwellian rabbit hole, into a post-fact world where leaders in every facet of life propagate lies as truth and engage in dystopian doublespeak. His surrogates previewed the latter on TV today by spinning his loss of almost $1 billion in one year as the feat of a “genius” businessman.
This is why it is as frustrating as it is stupefying that so many Americans seem perfectly happy to elect this mendacious, misogynistic, narcissistic, racist, xenophobic man-child as president of the United States.
In the meantime, I suspect we’re in for more October surprises. The only question is whether they ultimately prove more damaging to Hillary’s or Donald’s presidential campaign.
Related commentaries:
Hackers leak…
Presidential debate…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Sunday, at 2:24 p.m.