Boing Boing Staging

Ten years of Trump tax info obtained by NYT shows he was 'The Biggest Loser'

Xeni Jardin

All along, even in 1987 at the peak of his myth when this Newsweek cover touted him as an icon of wealth, Donald Trump was a fraud. And the press played right along with the fraud.

“Newly obtained tax information reveals that from 1985 to 1994, Donald J. Trump’s businesses were in far bleaker condition than was previously known,” report Susanne Craig and Russ Beutner at the New York Times in a major investigative feature.

Donald Trump paid zero income taxes in 8 of the 10 years examined by the Times.

“His losses were so big that in 1991 they accounted for fully 1% of all business losses declared that year by individual American taxpayers,” wrote Susanne Craig.

Excerpt:

The data — printouts from Mr. Trump’s official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with the figures from his federal tax form, the 1040, for the years 1985 to 1994 — represents the fullest and most detailed look to date at the president’s taxes, information he has kept from public view. Though the information does not cover the tax years at the center of an escalating battle between the Trump administration and Congress, it traces the most tumultuous chapter in a long business career — an era of fevered acquisition and spectacular collapse.

The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.

In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 — more than $250 million each year — were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.

Over all, Mr. Trump lost so much money that he was able to avoid paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years. It is not known whether the I.R.S. later required changes after audits.

The kicker is one for the ages:

While Donald Trump reported hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for 1990 and 1991, Fred Trump’s returns showed a positive income of $53.9 million, with only one major loss: $15 million invested in his son’s latest apartment project.

Go read the whole thing, then go subscribe to the New York Times:

Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses

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