Gail, loved the column. I only wish you would have used the picture of him walking up the stairs of Air Force One with the toilet paper stuck on his shoe. That would have made it perfect.
12
What is the hubbub about? When these tax records were valid he stated publicly that he was broke at one time. Does someone who had financial difficulties automatically disqualify them from ever holding office? Or is this just to embarrass him? Things happen in life, even to billionaires. I am neither a fan of his nor a detractor. I see things as they are without bias. Most people do not really care about politician's money or tax returns. They care more about keeping the roof overhead and finding candidates who can help them improve their lives. Gail, is your past so squeaky clean that you can judge others? In short I am asking you. So what?
39
@Joseph Gee True, he acknowledged he was broke. But that is not the same as seeing the underlying returns with the relevant specific data as to his sources of income, loans, debts, partnerships, and so on. Because he is so dishonest, his taxes must (and will be) released.
309
@Joseph Gee: When someone raises their hand to run for president, they are asking for a job managing two million employees and a $4.1 TRILLION budget, and providing services to nearly 330 million people. You better believe I look for evidence of exceptional past performance.
At no time in his life has Donald Trump shown himself capable of managing his toy empire, let alone the US government. He's performing pretty much as his critics expected.
A decade of failure, with five or six bankruptcies sprinkled in, is definite disqualifier IMHO. Apparently your bar is set considerably lower. Unless ... you're joking, right?
721
@Joseph Gee
"In short I am asking you. So what?"
So what? So what? So what if, because he was so broke, he money laundered millions of Russian rubles? So what if he did this by letting scores of Russian mobsters pay CASH for apartments in Trump-owned buildings in NY & Miami? So what if he is now leveraged by the Russians because they know this?
So what if Donald Trump's sons made these statements:
Donald Trump, Jr. in 2008: "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."
Eric Trump in 2014: "We have all the funding we need out of Russia."
Money laundering has always been the real Trump family business. Real estate is a front, like the olive oil business fronting the mafia in Sicily. The reason Trump is so comfortable with autocrats & gangsters is because they were and are his customers.
THAT's why it's important to see his tax returns.
So what?
402
I wonder how much his jet(s) costs him per year. Good for a tax trade-off in the mean time.
Well, the NYT endorsed Hillary Clinton. One of the contributing factors to This.
1
Trump obviously has wealth from an actual business. Unlike many politicians who have acquired their wealth from the public trough!..It's amazing how many politicians are worth over a million dollars as a result of just being politicians....The public knows they acquired their wealth due to the power and influence given to them by voters...They monetized their public office at the publics expense...I guess Trump is a loser and they are winners?!...
2
Trump's back taxes should be able to foot the bill for any infrastructure necessary.
5
Actually, as Don Jr. gets subpoena from Republican Senate committee chair, as tax history comes out, etc., I am concerned that Don Sr. Might go totally unhinged and do something dreadful.
And McConnell will just twiddle his thumbs.
7
The New York Times I grew up with during the 50's has turned into a WWF entity.
NBC's true BIGGEST LOSER! He could have been the winner on their other hit tv show. Who knew!?
8
He is a huckster. Great for nickel and dime stuff but running a country. If it wasn't true, no one would believe it. The joke is on the red capped people who drank the kool aid .
8
As the NYTimes reporting shows, this Emperor has no clothes!
6
As usual Gail does a neat job of "slice & dice" on our resident Con.
8
Once again a columnist in the Failing New York Times disparages Trump's "business genius". Once again, "fake news" in the Times. Consider all Trump's huge (probably bigger than any others in all history) business successes: Trump Airlines; Trump Taj Mahal Casino; Trump University; Trump Vodka; Trump Steaks... and so many others. Trump-branded businesses literally litter the landscape. Now Trump has brought his business genius and master negotiator ability to the United States' economy and our international relationships. And the Failing New York Times can report nothing but negative news... such are the hazards of sticking to reality-based facts. Get with the program, NYT! "Only Trump can save us!"
My only question: Who can save us from Trump? And can they do it soon...?!
9
"Billionaire"? "Thousandaire"? I suggest he is simply "FullOfNoxiousAir".
19
Shucks, Gail, at least we all agree that as losers go he is HUGE! But Yuk, yuk, the conman got us again, yuk, yuk. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me again and again and again ...maybe yer right Mr. Trump. I'm a country pumpkin, yuk, yuk.
3
Gail, like you, we were New Yorkers years and years agowhen that person was making all sorts of headlines. WHAT happened that so many "forgot" what a decent, upstanding citizen he was??????
1
If Donald Trump can't govern himself properly, why does he expect us to let him govern others?
3
Mr Trump claims that his businesses lost money and the tax returns confirm it to be so. Who is to say that he didn't launder that money through businesses that are owned by the Trump children? After all that is what Fred Trump did for DJ and his siblings.
5
Great, now I would like to see EVERY congressmen's tax returns.... ALL OF THEM.
3
@Mystery Lits
Me too!
1
Trump is a scam artist that demands a fix. He runs the Nation like his crooked business acumen demands. The fix can only be a dictate that removes him from office.
6
Surprising that he didn't choose Leona Helmsley to be his running mate.
8
@macduff15
I would prefer Bernie Madoff, not because he is a man, but because he has more class.
4
Trump is either an epically inept businessman or an epically criminal tax cheat. neither is anything to brag about
4
"And to everybody else’s surprise, the president upped the ante to $2 trillion."
Why was it to anyone's surprise? The man says whatever he feels like in the moment without any intention to back up his words with action.
What should surprise us is the Times still reports Trumps utterances seriously, like there is some there there.
5
Only in the United States of America could a fake television reality star, whose stories of accomplishments were as fake as his show, con his way through life and into the White House. Is this more an indictment of Trump or an indictment of us? Have we truly sank this low? Ummm....
17
Who cares? Gail, you have finally given in to Trump Derangement Syndrome. Sad.
All I can think about as I read some of these very moving comments is: What happened to the Republican Party? Yes, they were always right of center and conservative but how could this party put in office a lying fraud and known con artist like Trump? How could they have so little respect for the United States. These Republicans have no shame whatsoever.
Trump is the bigoted egomaniac and financial fraud he has always been- but what has brought the Republican Party to such a state that they allow an incompetent hateful tax evader to represent them and destroy our democracy? The only answer must be that the ultra-wealthy who finance the Republican Party do indeed want to do away with our Constitutional form of government and replace it with a right wing dictatorship. Ergo Trump!
9
Donald Trump's businesses ability to lose money is know very well documented. I'd be curious to know why the banks continued to lend him money. I hope we see a follow up article from the NYT on this subject. The articles I've read repeatedly say that with his failed businesses, Trump was in effect losing the bank's money, not his own. I can see why the banks didn't want to see Trump ruined (when a creditor loses that much money, it is not the creditor who has a problem-- it is the bank that has a problem). But really, after a while, they should have shut off Trump's credit. They were simply throwing good money after bad.
3
“You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes,” he tweeted after the Times report, adding that “it was sport.”
Loser.
10
While all your points are spot on, Gail, in the Rust Belt and the South, white voters want a president who promises them the (un)reality that they're still great and will do everything possible to hold off the inevitable---that whites will be the majority minority in two decades.
Coal mining --- a white man's job - only the third largest employer in coal field counties.
Steel production --- formerly a white man's job, now with mixed races in more highly-educated work force.
Agriculture --- formerly white family farm production, now the Big-Ag business is international and driven by the tax-incentives from the farm-belt ReTrumplican legislatures.
2
I love everything about this May 8,19 column. Thank you for being so funny and informative. Thank you for sticking your neck out for all of us.
Sincerely, Joani
2
Dear Republican Party,
Donald Trump, a certified business failure, conman, and dullard, will maintain control over your party for the next 20 years. He will choose your nominees for president, the senate, the house. Republican nominees at all levels will have to make a pilgrimage to Trump tower to win his approval before they are viable candidates for office in the new Trump-dominated republican party.
He will set the agenda for you. If he needs for property taxes taxes to be decreased nation-wide, you will be required to implement some type of property tax relief nationwide. If he needs for the bankruptcy laws to be relaxed again, you will implement a new policy to accommodate him.
Face the facts.
Trump owns the doltish mob you have worked so diligently to cultivate for the last 5o years. They are controlled by him. You will soon be a party full of Louie Gohmerts. You will have to consult with him before you vote on any major legislation that he might be able to understand. Or thinks he understands. He will punish those who don't stay in line with his whims. He will have a desperate need to stay relevant, and in charge.
I know you are working diligently to save your party by appeasing him now, but that is remarkably short-sighted and a fools errand. Trump will continue to dumb-down your party long after he has left office.
I guess your only hope is that William Barr, whose first government job was with the CIA, is still CIA.
Good Luck to you.
7
Those of us from New York have always known Trump to be a loser, a blowhard, a liar and cheat, a buffoon who craves the acceptance of the establishment. This combination allows him to appear to be one of the people who feel life has put them in the losing column, while he serves the interests of the establishment.
Too bad that 40% of Americans think that those are commendable characteristics.
12
Wow. Breaking news from 1994. His casino and commercial real estate problems were well known that the time. What you're engaging in is irresponsible gaslighting.
14
@Robert L Smalser, Sure ask the farmers in six Midwestern states that last year filed record-breaking bankruptcies, who is gaslighting who.
31
@Robert L Smalser The financial forensic analysis done by the NYT is new. It has long been known that Trump's businesses in the 80's and 90's were losing LOTS of money. This analysis spells out what is seemingly a very detailed analysis of exactly how much money he was losing (well, how much of the bank's money he was losing). I haven't heard a single serious argument that refute the accuracy of the analysis. I think the sheer amount of the losses, over such a long period of time, is news. It would have been nice if the NYT had done the analysis during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Your response is classic, by the way. The formula goes: when you hear bad news, say, "That's not true." After a while, when it becomes obvious the news is true, say, "It may be true, but it is not important." When more time has passed, and it is obvious that the news is both true and important, say, "That's nothing new."
57
@Robert L Smalser
"It's old news" is the oldest political answer in the book when the politician in question has no good answer to the issue raised. Old news does certainly not mean "untrue".
Also, according to Wikipedia, gaslighting is "a form of psychological manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim's belief."
Nothing about this article presents misdirection denial, contradiction, or lying. Perhaps it appears to be attempting to deligitimize belief in the business acumen of Donald Trump, but the facts of his disastrous development career speak for themselves. I find no way that any of this article could be defined as "gaslighting".
51
I know Trump really lost a bunch of money, but he also played "sport" with tax breaks for real estate developers. Why are real estate developers allowed such tax breaks? Between money laundering through the luxury condo markets and the types of people who are developers (Kushers and Trumps)...what makes them worthy of a tax break? What need are they serving?
7
Donald Trump never actually "lost" all that money. He just told the IRS he lost it. He never had it.
8
Gail Collins, esteemed financial expert, who doesn't have a clue what she is talking about. Nice. Uhhh, Gail, Hillary is still NOT president. Trump will win by a landslide in 2020. Can't wait to stay up until 9PM ET election night to see the fun!
1
Poor, poor, poor Trump haters - they grow ever more desperate every passing day. It's hard to know whether to just laugh or take pity on them.
1
Methinks you're going to be getting another letter, Gail, this time on White House stationary - brace up!
2
#BillionDollarLoser This is trump's legacy
8
By ANY measure, President Trump has made himself a success.
By what reason would someone (mainly every liberal commentator) consider him a loser? Projection, maybe?
.
This man/President has done some very good things for America and it is quite disturbing that the "left" cannot see any of it. (However, we can all see the attacks that were hurled at him since his election and were all found to be pure lies !)
If he had just done nothing and allowed his inheritance to grow, he would have more money now. So he was born “successful” which is radically different than making himself “successful.” But everything about him is smoke and mirrors. I care about substance.
6
"Hard to believe, but it seems Donald Trump was an even worse businessman than we thought."
.
Hard to believe, but it seems Gail Collins is an even worse commentator than we thought.
This is a great article! I hope Trump supporters read it and absorb its message. For some odd reason they all believe Donald Trump is a brilliant businessman, a self-made billionaire, a real deal-maker. The fact is he has been a colossal failure in the business world, and we have the bankruptcy records to prove it. Unfortunately, none of this matters to his most ardent supporters. Facts don't matter. Truth does not matter. Nothing matters except their Great Leader. Perhaps some of Trump's less-than-extreme supporters will get a clue and finally learn what kind of loser this man is and how badly he has been conning them into believing he he is something he is not and that he cares about them. He doesn't care about you, MAGA hat-wearing people. He's laughing at you right now and you don't realize it.
14
If only there were a patriotic IRS employee to “leak” Trump’s recent tax returns to Congress.
98
@Robert Gravatt China, if you are listening....
11
@Robert Gravatt I think you are using the word patriot wrong... I think the word you are looking for would be criminal.
1
Any thinking person knew that Trump was a fake from the start. He was a TV personality. A fictional tycoon. W. C. Fields once said that you can fool some of the people some of the time and you can fool all the people some of the time and from that you can make a living. What does the Trump presidency say about the United States in the twenty first century? That a major group of midwest voters believed that Trump was a true billionaire and that he was going to bring back manufacturing jobs to the rust belt. Trump is a fraud and he duped the undereducated and uninformed.
12
Gosh. You'd never guess that the President's RCP approval is at a 26-month high. Evidently people don't give a damn about his IRS-audited tax returns or his billionaire-business ups and downs.
1
I care deeply.
15
Trump would like us to believe all that red ink was actually a canny business strategy. “You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes,” he tweeted after the Times report, adding that “it was sport.”
And how should that make the rest of us taxpayers feel? We support our country. Rich folks like Trump and his equally "sporty" family don't. What gives them the right to call themselves patriots?
14
If HE builds it, everyone will go bankrupt.
Seriously.
7
Trump's 1 trillion promise on infrastructure? Or upping the ante to 2 trillion? It doesn't mean a thing when it is all hot air and your promises mean nothing.
11
Trump has the audacity to complain that China (substitute any trading partner country name) is ripping off America and the American people.
Trump is the freeloader here. His billionaire lifestyle is financed by those who pay taxes to fix the roads, pay the air traffic controllers, buy military hardware and employ the soldiers, provide disaster relief, finance SS and Medicare, a benefit that Trump receives because there is no wealth discrimination. The list is beyond 1500 characters.
China could do us taxpayers all a favor by cutting off Trump's supply of MAGA hats. I am sure the Chinese worker is tired of being paid next to nothing so Trump can have cheap stuff to self promote and slam their country.
10
So neither NYT columnists nor their readers understand how a real estate developer works the tax system to avoid exposure. Not surprising. They also fail to see that real estate developers do not make tax law, but are left to manage their exposure as best they can. Somewhat surprising. Any delusional, ignorant accusation they can bring against this president is good enough for them. Not surprising at all, but quite pathetic, if mildly entertaining.
2
Wharton must regret giving him a business degree.
7
We must give Donald Trump his due. There is no question that Donald IS the greatest grifter this country has ever produced. No one is even close.
In reality Donald Trump, with the help of FOX, hoodwinked 77,744 undereducated knuckle draggers, in just the right places (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan) to become president. However, he serves only himself and the wealthiest .1 percent of America. Donald Trump's goal is to destroy every aspect of civil society that supports equal opportunity, racial justice, science, a clean environment and the rule of law. Mitch Mcconnell and the GOP senators have these same goals, so Trump is them and they are Trump. Make no mistake, until they are all gone American institutions will continued to be dismantled and America will be pulled back into the 19th century. It's really easy: If you support the Trump/GOP, check your bank account to find out if you are a part of the .1 percent or just a fool.
18
@Son Of Liberty Total nonsense.
Trump only rules through intimidation and fear. I've always felt that the press gives him too much undeserved respect. I think they, and those of us who see him as a clown, should actually start treating him as a joke. If we did he'd lose a lot of his power to control us.
We should try his trick of using demeaning nicknames on him like "loser Donnie, "small hands" etc., and generally ignore his tantrums refusing to take him seriously. Since attention is what he craves most, to be sidelined would hurt him more than anything.
He's a loser, in every way, so let's treat him as one - "loser Donnie" sounds good to me.
12
Ah, Gail, did you steal my line or did I steal yours? In any case, I used virtually the same "headline" on my Facebook page yesterday. Trump is a loser in every sense, including financial. Only a loser needs to tell people what a winner he is. Only a loser needs to brag about things that don't exist, like a record-breaking inaugural turnout or winning the popular vote that he lost by 3 million votes.
I didn't think to call him a thousandaire though. I'll steal that line from you, since it applies.
6
Numbers of commenters have noted that Trump was just doing what the law allows by depreciating the value of his properties (e.g., as buildings get old, their value declines . . . they wear out . . . not the land under them, just the building) for tax purposes and using the on-paper depreciation as an offset of taxable income from rents and the like and thus not having to pay taxes on that income. But, if, when the developer sells that building and it has been maintained that owner does pay taxes in what's called depreciation recapture. And, those taxes can be significant.
But, for certain sorts of developers that might just be a good time to declare their real estate company bankrupt to wipe out its tax and other obligations to contractors and others. And, of course, that’s a corporate bankruptcy, not the developer’s personal bankruptcy. Thus, given the right sort of tax and legal advice, that developer can still have plenty of cash to be a pretend TV business success or pay other . . . um, obligations.
Certainly, most well run financial institutions that might have lent to the developer and seen real losses in the corporate bankruptcy will be reluctant to provide funds for that developer’s next developments. But, there always seem to be less seemly money sources around the globe with other agendas that will step in for the right price.
And, of course, in this instance, the price is us.
5
Do you really think this changes anyone's mind? This news has been around for 30 years. Trump himself talks about it in two books. The man lost a billion dollars and still made it. I don't know that he had any scruples in business, but you can't deny the will and ability to get out of the situation in which he found himself. After he turned it around by renegotiating, changing to a license business and going through Chapter 11 several times, he got The Apprentice, it turned into a hit, his net worth skyrocketed, then he got elected President over 17 far more traditionally qualified people. Oh, and then he survived a coup attempt and greatest spy scandal in American history. Loser? Orange Man might be BAD, but he's no loser.
5
This column clearly illustrates why the prez dislikes the Failing NY Times.
4
Right. for telling the truth about him
11
The NYT isn’t failing but why would that fact matter? Turns out that the vast majority of what the “failing NYT” reported was confirmed by Mueller. But you’d have to read the report to know that. If you are bemoaning the degradation of our public discourse you have no one to blame but Trump and the right wing media that both traffic in lies, fiction, character assassination and fear and loathing. We have all had more than enough of it and are so done.
2
I think that it is not accurate to say "he had losses of over $250 million a year" (1990 and 1991). We now in the post-factual era, and these are not facts. They are fictions, as Trump ironically himself exposed in his tweets attempting to mount a defense. His "creative accounting" cooked up those numbers, to give himself tax benefits (i.e., pay no taxes). In one of the 2016 debates, he proudly said (paraphrase): I'm a businessman, of course I try to pay no taxes. His supporters loved it. Hillary should have then exposed that Trump was himself a lobbyist in Washington and Albany, getting these despicable tax loopholes and gimmicks implemented into law.
1
@Alan Shapiro
And who is responsible for building a system where entrepreneurs have to be lobbyists as well? It's a bit pathetic to lambaste someone for doing the best they can with a crooked system they did not create.
Considering what his word is worth, Trump is solidly in the wooden-nickeldaire category.
8
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." (Pogo) How else to explain it?
4
@Andy - "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." (Hunter S. Thompson)
4
Are you more fretful that Trump is making money, or that he is not making money?
1
Would you rather show losses or income to the IRS?
How many of you pay one extra dime to the IRS, over what you owe?
Sorry, but I say more power to him.
4
@ian Well you and me have to make up the revenue not gained by Trump and his family and others who do not pay their fair share.
4
I find it odd that both Democrats and Republicans feel it necessary when discussing infrastructure to suggest ways to pay for it. Was this discussed when passing an immense tax cut? Other than partisanship is there something that informs our representatives what things are so important we don’t have to pay for them. Infrastructure apparently is not important enough to be put on the credit card but building a wall is.
10
When we actually get to see Trump's taxes--even if they're only those he filed in NY State--we'll learn whether his liabilities (debts, etc.) outweigh his income. I won't be surprised if they do, and that he actually is a thousandaire, paying minimal taxes if any at all. Was it Lincoln who said: you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the times, but not all of the people all of the time? Whoever said it, I suspect we and Pres. Trump will soon find out that it is true.
6
Interesting, Trump rather brag about tax evasion than admit he lost money.
7
That’s because his ‘base’ would love to do the same things they just can’t afford the accountants and lawyers
Everyone else,the majority of people would think that a bit sleazy, shady and sad.
6
I recall he once described himself as, "the King of Debt". . . seems appropriate and well deserved.
4
Thanks a lot Gail Collins. Now,if you are listening, not you Russia or China, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,please look into the age-old scam of a particular person, say, Individual 1, in a high position in business and/or government, who, with his family's backing and complicity buys a really really cheap company's stock, say at $.85 a share and then that guy in the highest of positions, you know who, touts that company bigly and the next trading day we see the share price has shot up to $4.35. Then, suddenly the next day, the share price drops way back down, after Individual 1 sold his position. Repeat, and rinse. This is just a teeny tiny example of what the S.E.C. should look into,by following the money, Individual 1, and a crime family in a very high place in America.
10
When I recently applied for a mortgage, I had to disclose my federal tax return forms for three previous years. So, you can become US president even without this much ?
279
@kali
Only if you're Donald Trump, the master of excuses.
7
@kali Another unintended consequence of his installation as president will be some new requirements for the nominees at least and possibly for anyone running. After we pry this guy out of office we should be evermore careful and vigilant who we let near the place.
Dog catchers get more scrutiny as does just about any job applicant. I mean this is the presidency of the United States we're talking about!
15
Taxes for everyone (except for Republicans and the 1% robbing wealth and labor)!
7
@Cygnus
Your last word says it all. Pres. Trump has done more for Latino & Black American workers than any Democrat - and the results of their loyalty will be written across the election map in Nov. 2020.
As I'm reading this column and comments, I am listening to NPR and the subject is the same. "Dark Towers" is a book on Duetche Bank and trump's dealings will be coming out soon. The bank evidently has troves of info on trump, who is suing to keep that info from coming out....as if most of the world who has been paying attention for years didn't know.
Hold on to your hats!
14
Title of your piece says it all. Trump, his family and his supporters all.
4
Has anyone checked into who did McConnell's taxes? Trump's tax accountants??? This tax thing could be bigger than we can even imagine....
9
And how was he surviving during all this financial loss? US banks didn't want to give him money. Perhaps with the help of money from Russian money launderers and oligarchs many of whom who own apartments in Trump Tower? "In 2008, Donald Jr. told investors in Moscow that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” while Eric reportedly told a golf reporter in 2014 that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” This is what ties Trump to Russia and why he's doing Putin's bidding. He needs Russian money to help him with his debts.
13
In the big Times exposé on Trump's tax returns, someone had the curiosity to check Fred's during the same period. Fred Trump did fine, except for one investment that lost big. It happened to be in one of his son's ventures. Go figure.
11
If it wasn't for his daddy's money he'd be, right this minute, either selling you a lemon of a used car ("It's the greatest, no better, the best, you'lll look like a king driving that!") or sitting on his bed in the psych ward waiting for his meds. And scheming how he's going to 'get back' at another patient he's perennially angry with.
Aren't we the lucky ones?
12
The GOP will never allow for a decent infrastructure bill; if he survives until the next election, Trump will just transfer all of his empty promises from his first run to the next, the fabulous new health care system to replace the one he's wrecking, infrastructure, bringing back dead industries, et al. Trump has one set of skills, con artistry and apparently they work very well until the bill comes in, at which point he moves on to the next group of victims. He's going to have to take his act on the road far away to pull that off this time.
7
There's a Buddhist axiom that seems to obtain here: "The way you do anything is the way you do everything."
Which would indicate that what Mr. Trump did for his businesses back then he's doing to the country today.
485
@Dean Paton, in a strange way he is exposing to the entire world what American system is exactly like and how people like him have gotten away so easily.
17
@Dean Paton
American loves to see it self as the country that has a constant beacon of "equality and liberty" that all other nations aspire to.
Americans should be required to live in other countries to #1 - appreciate the life we are afforded, and #2 - appreciate that there are other countries with many things to offer that we don't have.
4
@Dean Paton Or to remember the words of the hymn sung at Reverend Billy Graham's revivals: "What he's done for others he'll do for you."
5
Take away the smoke and there's nothing there.
3
Fake billionaire. Fake president. Real criminal.
16
Did anyone not know by now that Trump’s claimed business success was all a fraud? How many lawsuits, failed businesses, defaulted loans, bankruptcies and ruined reputations do we need? The reporting is great, but the man lost hundreds of millions of dollars or more, so of course he would have massive tax losses.
How ironic that a man that rails against the evils of “socialism” has basically been supported and saved from financial ruin by the collective funding of the American taxpayer.
687
@Jack Sonville
Indeed, it is quite astonishing that so many Americans were not familiar with Trump’s actual financial prowess, not the media created persona of The Apprentice. What is even more astonishing to me today, however, is: there are still millions and millions of Americans who continue to insist ‘Trump is a genius at business’ as fact, and ‘Trump is a failed businessman’ as the enemy of the people, media created, lie. What makes me most hopeless about where we stand today literally is that fact.
53
@Jack Sonville It isn't entirely bad business it is bad tax policy. Allowing these ridiculous write offs for depreciation and "investment" is insane. Did he really lose money or was it merely on paper? Either way it is a disgrace to see that rich people can get away with out paying taxes. Put the rates up 90% stop the loop holes. A wealth tax is a great idea. We tax middle class wealth in the form of property taxes.
44
@Jack Sonville: And that basic fact clearly eludes him. It’s too complicated for him to comprehend.
7
If you think those older tax returns are a revelation, just wait until his more recent New York State ones are made public . . .
Only real question is whether there will be actual line item deductions for "Russian expenses".
597
@Glenn Ribotsky: Two other questions- How much money did he contribute to charity (excluding the so-called Trump Foundation)? And how many deductions does he take (in addition to Barron and Melania)?
56
@Glenn Ribotsky
"Russian expenses"
Sometimes the profound is right under my nose, and I need some one else to point it out.
If you think that he does not have "Russian expenses" I have a bridge to sell you.
24
@stu freeman The Times Editorial states that NY State can only provide the tax returns to Congress...not make them public.
12
Once a liar, always a liar.
And the lies just get bigger.
Does he have a superpower?
So many people still believe him. And those who side with him are eventually discarded with no more concern than he gives to actual trash.
7
Grifter. Con man. Scofflaw. Corrupt. Amoral. Immoral. Bully. Braggart. Unprincipled. Liar. He was called all these and more by Republicans during the campaign. He is truly a vile human being.
13
I’m too sad and beaten down to write my comment. I just want him out of office.
13
Make America большой again!!!!
Putin/Trump 2020!!!!
2
Does the border wall qualify as infrastructure? It already has a plaque dedicated to Trump on its first section. Can't it be included with past name-bearing structures which really did provide an underlying framework for the country and its economy--projects which weren't just publicity stunts--like the Hoover Dam, the George Washington Bridge, JFK International Airport to name a few. Trump Tower does not count.
4
"Once in a while a Good Donald spirit takes over the president ..."
All part of the act; the greatest Reality TV Show ever.
Even before he was inaugurated, the Trump announced his "health insurance for everybody" plan.
>President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid.
“It’s very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven’t put it in quite yet but we’re going to be doing it soon,” Trump said.
Washington Post, Jan 15, 2017
4
Our Fake President, a/k/a the Billion Dollar (plus) Loser, may not even be a measly “thousandaire” Gail. It’s probably the case that his present indebtedness well exceeds his assets. Does Forbes have a list of the biggest business incompetents in history?
4
@Katie What infuriates me even more, Katie, is that my tax dollars go to support this charlatan and his enablers--McConnell, the two rubber stamp senators from my state, Cruz and Cornyn, and a corrupted Supreme Court. I am PAYING to watch my democracy destroyed from within. How obscene is that?
15
I recall conservatives saying it would be a great thing to hire a businessman as president. They did...and it's not. You want to know why? Because Trump is a lousy businessman, that's why.
7
Gail, when you characterized him as a "thousandaire" you were apparently overstating his wealth.
4
@DJohnson: I recall at the beginning of the campaign Michael Bloomberg commenting that strump is no billionaire. I think it takes one to know one and strump ain't one!
1
This is the Homeric epithet that the Democrats have long sought, tied up with a bow: Loser Trump, Loser Donald.
Gail, your headline is a loser. We need to stay away from name calling and stick to talking about programs that can defeat Trump, which is everything. At name calling, he seems to hold the upper hand.
@Lisa, you may have missed what I think is the point of the headline - Trump is literally a loser - that is, according to these records, he managed to lose more than a billion dollars in a short period. That's losing, strictly defined. No name-calling there, though of course it's easy to impute...
He doesn’t pay his taxes and penalizes people when voted against him thru the latest “tax cut”. An immortal fraud and bully, yet his deplorable’s line up for more. Is there no one with a backbone left in the GOP? Can the democrats ever stop being so nice? Have god fearing Christians abandoned themselves to this godless heathen? Welcome to their version of a great America, may the gun be with you.
3
Frisky little thousandaire? That's all you got, Gail? Might have worked in the 90s, but not now...
Sounds too much like the Winnie the Pooh song...
"Cuddly little studly old bear!"
Donald will embrace it, and you. Look out!
The chief Grifter-thousandaire is laughing at his base, the suckers, who are paying taxes and the suckers think he loves them. Little do they know, he wouldn't allow them into his tRump Tower elevator, never mind his penthouse.
3
Trump is definitely King Loser. Thankfully this is America where kingship means nothing.
1
Pretty sure the financial understanding of the "frisky little thousandaire" is limited to his stated belief that he can order the Treasury to print more money.
3
Donald Trump has a small fortune today because his father left him a large fortune 30 years ago.
This man is profoundly ignorant. Trump barely made it through college (no honors at all). His IQ is reliably estimated at about 95.
Donald's problem solving abilities are extremely deficient. He suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), which gives him low self esteem and lack of focus.
Trump pays for his inadequacies by bankruptcies & many lawsuits. He compensates with scams, constant insults and spreading his daily chaos. He is a consumate con artist.
That is how he became this King of the Losers.
8
Things that standout:
1. Trump is a profoundly ignorant individual.
2. Trump is a horrible businessman.
3. Trump is a tax scofflaw.
4. Trump is deeply in debt to "someone" (Putin?).
5. Trump is a master con man, to sell his shtick for so long.
8
I intensely dislike Donald Trump, everything about his narcissistic megalomaniac self.
2
Hey, I mean, if you burn all your American bridges, so you go to "lend-anybody-anything" Deutsche Bank, and burn THAT bridge, so you go to the Russian state mafia and only manage to salvage THAT bridge by being bafflingly elected President by a cadre of social media manipulable gullible marks...
... I dunno what the lesson is here. Fire people from your reality TV show to get name recognition up, dog whistle til your ears bleed, you too can rule the world.
2
Brilliant Gail!
2
Really? That's all you can muster? Is there something clever or amusing about these revelations? I'm always on the fence concerning Ms. Collins edgy humor. We certainly need humor and I have laughed at this presidents social media faux pas more than any president in my lifetime. The never ending wind worn toupee, the TP on the heel of Donald's wingtips climbing up the stairs to Air Force One, Melania's "I really don't care," fashion statement for the ages, and bloopers that never stop giving. "Islands surrounded by water... BIG water...." or having met with the "President of the Virgin Islands." I mean, you can't make this stuff up, right? But here's a tip to an NY Times columnist that should be on the inside of the inside of the inside in a way that can offers us something more profound than Donald's pathetic personal net worth. Do you think we might want to understand how it was possible a man who lost over a billion dollars could become pretty fabulously wealthy compared to most of us? How is possible? Was he the only one? Hmmm, might the S&L and Junk Bond era inform us any further? Hmmm, might the never ending cycle of bubbles be somehow connected? Hmmm, what was that thing that happened in 2008? What happened in the aftermath? Who is Steve Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, Wilbur Ross? Is there a correlation to any or all of the above? Hmmm, I guess Donald Trump is just a loser and wow isn't that news?!?!?!?
@Patrick Lovell In this dreadful time of trump, we need to laugh a little. Joan Collins is the first opinion column I look for to start my day with a laugh, or at least not wanting to cry. After this, I can handle the news of the degradation of our country by trump a little less stressed knowing there are many commenters who feel like I do.
1
Some of the things which Trump has been called - liar, racist, con artist - seem to roll off his back. But “loser” gets to him. He relishes in calling others that, and you know it’s projection. He can’t even handle having lost the popular vote! Deep down, Trump hates being what he is: a not very bright person who hadn’t achieved anything exceptional, and who would have been completely unremarkable without his father’s enterprise. Total loser.
6
Trump is a fraud and scam. Sadly, people who should know better seem to willfully overlook this. Nothing seem to stick on him but if the tax returns show that he really isn't as rich as he claims to be, that will stick and get under his skin. The circus will then enter the next phase.
1
Hey! Don’t insult him! He’s the greatest everything ever!
So why can’t he be the greatest fraud and biggest loser in history?!
3
Yes, he is a record-breaking loser.
1
If the American people have not figured out this loser has been playing the biggest con man game for most of his life (and getting away with it) by now; then one has to ask who the real fools are by now?! A man who has now been revealed to have lost $1.17 BILLION; and still talks about it like some sick game. It should be GAME OVER for the King of Losers!
3
brilliant gail Collins.....positively brilliant!!!! thx
1
Fifty years from now a presidential historian will write a book titled “The Con Man Who Became President.”
Let’s just hope it is not a sequel to Michael R. Beschloss’ recent book “Presidents of War.”
3
A nothingburger-enough said...priceless!
2
Gail, have you no pity? Donald a loser? Than which his daddy told him there is nothing worse? This is the unkindest cut of all.
1
In the accompanying photo, is that a tie flapping, or his bib?
3
And yet the Republicans think it's nobody's business who this repulsive charlatan owes money to.
2
And he is President of the USA and you aren’t
1
@NYC Dweller Correction! he is the electoral college president and you aren't.
3
Write whatever you want! Losers don’t become President of The United States! Unless, being a loser doesn’t disqualify you from becoming President of The United States! Wow! The Gutter Has Come To Power! Sad! Incredibly sad!!!
1
@Counter Measures Unfortunately, in our electoral college system, losers do become president. trump lost the popular vote, which means more US citizens voted for Hillary.
trump is a loser in more ways than one, and, unfortunately our country is paying for it every day he demeans the presidency.
1
Q: How can we mend a broken government?
A: We get rid of that financially embattled thousandaire, Potus Ignoramous Licentious -- then put him in 'lock-up.'
(Re the "financially embattled thousandaire" reference: When Gail 'speaks,' I listen.)
3
Trump's supporters remain strongly behind him because they see themselves and their view of their nation in him: Lucky but without intelligence, over stuffed, sex crazed, addicted to debt, broke, uncouth, expansionist, racist, cowardly but tough talking, vindictive, buck-passing, narcissistic, poorly educated, and ultimately dull. An icon for the times.
5
The loser couldn't even be a pimple on a good business mans rear. Reality is that Trump has spent a lifetime gaming the system and apparently not doing it very well. To top that off he seems quite proud of the fact. The presidency has exposed him for the loser fraud he is. A serial liar racist whose only claim to fame is that he has no shame or sense of accountability. He is everything we teach our children not to be.
4
People who support trump, who think he's doing a good job, remind me of the people on the Titanic who were real happy with the trip until their idiot captain sailed them into an iceberg. America hasn't had a real crisis in the last two years, only those actually created by trump's mouth and his inability to stay focused for more than a day. What happens when there is a real issue? Remember, this is the guy who runs back to Daddy, runs away and leaves the problems to others, or has a divorse. What then America?
4
A+ piece
1
Ha Ha Ha! You've got to love it.
1
Trump is not a "thousandaire." He almost certainly has a negative net worth.
My teenagers are richer than he is every time I hand them their allowance.
2
Well done Ms. Collins.
1
The only good thing about not getting his taxes exposed until after he is no longer in the White House is dishonest Donny will be eligible for jail.
1
Yeah you are right. What a big Loser Trump is.
He is currently sitting in the White House as President of America. So he the most powerful man in the world.
He is a Billionaire.
And he dates and marries Models.
I wish I could be as big of a loser as Trump is.
1
@Michael
Michael,
IF that's your criteria for President, god help you all.
1
Trump is a grifter, pure and simple. The quicker the public wraps their collective minds around this the better. Examples of his unpredictable behavior abound. If you research it, even his campaign slogan MAGA was stolen from Reagan 1980 campaign. There is nothing original in a con artist.
Get to the impeachment and put this fraud in jail.
2
Sometimes a headline alone tells volumes. Trump clearly wants to be king, which would make us all losers.
1
If anyone runs for public office they are asking for my trust. I want information to help me make such a decision, and the higher the office, the more data I want. I need to know more than just who they are today, I need to know who they were on their journey to becoming who they are now.
Donald Trump has spent decades proclaiming his financial wizardry. Prove it. If his money magic "genius" is as he claims it is, demonstrating that would be very simple.
He's never been a wizard, his "genius" is a lie, so of course he'll fight tooth and nail to prevent any honest disclosure.
"Thousandaire" makes a really nice #hashtag. Use it. Maybe he'll lose it.
3
He may be a lousy businessman but he seems to be really good at destroying democracies and taking over a country. Of course it helps that the only group that can stop him are too busy on their knees kissing his feet. I hope I can run into a Republican politician in the federal government because I've always wondered what it must be like to be an abject coward.
3
Give it to the little frisky little thousandaire, but for Americans who feel that all is not right in this latest debacle, one million taxpayers might march to the White House and ask for the president's resignation. It would also be an opportunity to see the panda at the Washington D.C. Zoo.
2
This may be the best takedown of Trump: "the cynical version of Donald Trump as a businessman — undisciplined self-promoter who bought and sold things just to convince himself he wasn’t a useless nothingburger living off his rich dad’s money..." Gail, I hope you sent some aloe to the White House for that burn.
5
"Donald Trump, King of the Losers"
In my humble opinion Donald Trump is Ace of the Losers because when it comes to losers, nobody trumps Trump.
1
Maybe it's time admit america doesn't have a legitimate president. It has a mentally unhinged con-artist sitting in the WH. Yes, sorry to say, he was legitimately elected. but from DAY #1 he has shown contempt for everyone (including his wretched base) and unprecedented incompetence.
1
@MR He was not elected, he was appointed by the outdated electoral college that gives extra weight to votes from three states.
And the Big Con continues.
1
Once NY releases Trump's state returns to the House, the we'll all know Gail if your comments were on point or just your endless hatred of everything Trump.
1
@George
I know, right? If Trump would only release his taxes, the world would know what kind of business genus he is.
“Nobody knows debt better than me,” claims the Mango Mussolini.
No kidding.
1
ʻChuck and Nancyʻ said two trillion for infrastructure, sure why not, just show me the money. I haven’t stopped laughing since, ‘ trumpa dumpa, trumpa dumpa, I builda da wall....
Cue Trump: “It’s only a flesh wound!”
1
Of course, no one is surprised at all that Gail has no more idea about how the fiscal side of the real estate biz works than thefeeling you get from hiring someone.
As a devout progressive, she just despises the whole picture that describes Donald The Employer.
Gail belongs on late night TV since he sense of humor is all tied up with rage and jealousy.
1
@The Observer Are you referring to Donald The Employer who didn't pay contractors for building his casinos? Or, the Donald who ran a fake university?
2
Why wasn’t this investigative reporting done prior to the 2016 election NYT?!
1
Trump gives new meaning to “The Biggest Loser”
3
If it is true that Trump never really wanted to be president, then he should have had the good sense to say, "I was just kidding folks" and step aside and let Hillary C. run things. As a result of his presidency, lying and malicious deception, he's bringing on his own massive humiliation and likely imprisonment. But his big fat ego got in the way. Bummer.
1
Trump should have hosted THE BIGGEST LOSER!!! Actually, I really don't care. But it is relevant when it made him a target for manipulation by criminals and foreign governments. If he paid less taxes legally, I've got no problem. But if he paid less taxes because he committed financial frauds and laundered illegal money, then that's a deal breaker. Lock him up.
4
I woke up with a vision of Trump as a bloated slug with orange hair and a gigantic boot about to come down on him from a great height. Wonder what that could mean?
2
If not for his “ Job “, Trump would be a Hundredaire.
Just saying.
2
How could any of this possibly be Donald Trump's fault?
Surely, the blame must go to a faulty hyphen key on his accountant's old electric typewriter.
1
Good for Gail for calling out Trump as the loser he is. If in everyday life you met an obviously mediocre golfer who then claimed to have won 18 club championships, one's reflexive thought would be " what a loser". And same for someone who pathologically lied about how much money they made, or constantly referenced their own good looks,smarts and sexual conquests. Or who inflated their life accomplishments in general.The real fake news? That Trump is anything other than a loser.
1
The true facts we have learned about Trump in the last few years, this man is not the "king" of losers, he is "the definition" of a loser.
2
Ms. Collins, you are so good! The setup for the last three words; and the payoff! it took my breath away. "Frisky little thousandaire." Indeed!
Maybe you will get another letter with hand-written comments and a bit of name-calling. How wonderful. You could frame both of them, and hang them next to a picture of The Donald eating fast food.
1
@John Taylor
More likely a Tweet...
1
I guess Donald wanted to paint Moscow red.
1
You got this bums number. Keep it up.
1
"A fool and his money are soon parted." No words ring with greater truth. Give this fool money, and he'll soon be parted from it through loss, "bigly."
1
If one thing should be glaringly obvious by now, it's that there is no "Good Donald Trump". Never has been, never will be.
And there's nothing funny or ironic about it.
1
If nothing else can we stop letting the rich get away with this baloney? Read Planet Money. The fix is in and it is worldwide. There is a reason the IRS doesn't "audit" rich people's tax returns. If Congress is ever allowed to wield power again they should pass some new laws.
Of course if this "Constitutional Crisis" is resolved in his favor the "laws" will just become looser and voters will no longer have a say so in that. Welcome to government Putin style with it's spokesman Sean Hannity.
3
Pretty persuasive evidence if you were writing this article 35 years ago. How were like NY developers doing in the late 80's? I suppose Trump was the only one who hemorrhaged money during that period. How about following the story up to the President's taking office Gail? Picking and choosing what to focus on doesn't give a fair and balanced picture to the rest of us; or did you mean not to?
2
@Kurt Pickard want 'fair and balanced'? Go watch FAUX. This is an opinion column and a good one, too.
2
@Kurt Pickard
I'm sure Gail would love to write the story about the time leading up to the President's taking office, but the man just will not provide the evidence you'd need to write the story -- though you'd think he'd be happy to make public any information that would prove he's the financial genius he says he is.
I guess con artists don't brag about their current con jobs, no matter how successful, which must be killing Trump.
Winning the presidency through lies and obfuscation and so far skirting a Special Counsel investigation has been his best effort yet. Well done, Mr. Trump.
1
Donald Trump: the Biggest Loser. There are the two years he lost double the amount of the next worst money loser. Then there is the fact that he lost the popular vote by the largest margin of anyone who ended up winning in the electoral college. Thousandaire is fine for upsetting him, but it's better to upset him and label him for his documented failures: The Biggest Loser.
4
Trump, King of the Frauds. A few billion here, a few billion there. Madoff's twenty billion dollar real fraud only comes up to Trump's knees. We should celebrate January 20th of every year as the anniversary of the inauguration day that Donald Trump was crowned King of the Frauds. May it rest in peace and may God bless America's Soul.
3
“You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes,” he tweeted after the Times report, adding that “it was sport.”
Some might call it fraud.
Poor Donald Trump is caught on the horns of a dilemma. He can let the record stand and be revealed as the most unsuccessful businessman in the Guinness book of records. Or he can show how he really made a lot of money, and those losses were... well .., lies, making him guilty of tax fraud. (some might call it "schadenfraud").
3
@michaeltide
But but but Mr Trump is always being victimized by anyone who disagrees with him. You know "The Deep State, The Democrats, The News Media (well except for Fox News) as the media is all fake news, The Intelligence Community, Law Enforcement, The Scientific Community on Climate Change, on and on.
It must be hard to be so persecuted by so many poor person born into wealth but left out of "polite society" I feel his pain (Right what little I have I worked really hard for) to have been born rich loose so much but still be rich Ahhh the pain of it all.
World's biggest debtor. For years!
3
Democrats be warned (and not just because “Good Donald” lasts a matter of hours before Trump Unfit reneges): Trump isn’t interested in infrastructure. As demonstrated in how he distributes disaster aid (yes to South Carolina, Florida; no to Puerto Rico and California) and how he nixed the NY-NJ Hudson Gateway Tunnel, Trump sees the $1 or $2 trillion infrastructure spending as a political slush fund, to reward states/lawmakers who support him and punish those who don’t.
5
Thanks, Ms. Collins!
2
"Follow the money."
--Deep Throat
2
GOP'ers love invoking Fake imagery of 'welfare queens'; plainly, the biggest 'welfare queen' for '85-'94 was Donald J Trump.
8
Bill Maher has it right "Blob the Builder".
3
So says Gail who make $50K per year.
@Michael. I don't know Ms Collin's salary, but I assume she still has her dignity. How many in the Republican party still have theirs?
7
We've become the Land of Oz. Maybe climate change created the "twister" that brought us here. Trump: No Courage, No Heart and definitely No Brain--and the constant refrain: "Pay no attention to the man behind the Iron Curtain." Two wicked witches: Kellyanne and Sarah; the Cheshire Cat of Barr (who's definitely smoking something). And oh those flying monkeys doing his bidding. So many Republican flying monkeys.
7
The mistake was always assuming Trump knew what he was doing. That behind the obvious ignorance and blank lizard eyes, he understood what he was doing. That he was smarter than he appeared. That there was some there there.
Now we know that knows and understands nothing. He's been winging it his entire life, back-dooring it, faking it. He's a big fat life-size cut out of a cartoon rich guy only in rumply cheap suit and plastic tie.
This is a new take on the emperor has no clothes; this guy has nothing.
6
At the height( or more likely the depth) of his building empire, the Trump organization only had about 12 people. 12. And almost half of them, family. Now, he pretends to run a country of 330 million people. The really only thing he does well is put his signature scrawl on documents. He had plenty of practice because he signed every check payable to contractors. Let that sink in for a moment. He now has more lackeys in his cabinet than he had in his entire organization. But, his management style( and I use the term lightly) is the same. I, I, I, me, me, me all the time. However, the American taxpayer is now his "sugar daddy" and the majority are getting ....hosed?
5
@Eric Correction: he did not sign every check payable to his contractors, unless he was forced to by a judge. his defunct New Jersey casinos were built by small construction companies, who either didn't get paid or had to sue if they could afford to.
1
And yet he still beat Hilary.
1
@profwilliams
*sigh*......she got about three MILLION more votes than he did. Don't ever forget that. But don't worry.....we won't let you.
2
@profwilliams
And just look at his "Rallies with those screaming adoration at him". I find that frightening and almost cult like.
I truly believe Mr Trump when he told the adoring crowd at some rallies that he loved the uneducated. That spoke no screamed at me a truth I found scary.
@Patsy47 So what? The election was for electoral votes- as it's been for centuries. Was she running for the most votes and a walk in the woods. Or the most electoral votes and the Presidency?
Was she such a bad candidate with such a bad team that they didn't realize the rules?
You understand this now, right? The Dem in 2020 will lose again he they too are seeking the most votes rather than 270 electoral votes.
This remains the only rule that matters.
After all those losses, how did Trump “ get out of debt free?”. Russia! Who helped Trump get elected President of the USA? Russia! Who is actually running our government? Russia! Who is supporting a treasonous traitor? A bunch of gullible American voters deluded by Russia. What will it take to get rid of Russia? American voters getting rid of Trump.
6
If only some foolish bank had stepped up to the plate and let him have enough money to have the winning bid on the Buffalo Bills football franchise, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in as a country. After the folding of US Football League and his NJ Generals were gone like an errant ball, I bet he had a great, huge tax deduction. The Bills would have been a perfect team for him as they are usually losers. But the other owners were smarter than the public as they didn't want him as a NFL team owner, mores the pity. They don't like bragging thousandaires.
Just sign me disgruntled citizen and NE Patriots fan (those winners).
1
"...undisciplined self-promoter who bought and sold things just to convince himself he wasn’t a useless nothingburger living off his rich dad’s money..." This. Exactly.
5
Will Rogers, the great American humorist, presaged our President when he said, "A fool and his money are soon elected," except that in our President's case, his supporters are the fools and his money? Well, that remains a mystery.
5
Trump is our very own Harry Flashman -- in the words of author George MacDonald Fraser, " "a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward—and, oh yes, a toady." He never really wanted, or expected, to be President; he saw his campaign as a PR enterprise, a way to burnish his brand. For an entertainer (and that's what he is), he's not the least bit entertaining. He'll destroy anyone and anything.
9
@Tom that is an excellent point, that the campaign was a marketing device and inadvertently resulted in Mr. Trump's presidency. I, myself, am reminded of the words of Vice President Henry Wallace (who served inder F.D.R.): "They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise,but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that using the power of the State and the power of the market simultaneously they may keep the common man in eternal subjection"
2
@Tom Post this!!!
On Thu, May 9, 2019 at 2:11 PM Brian Rose wrote:
Good comment--but I disagree on your point of him not being "entertaining." Listening to him today at his press spray and at his rallies, his roots in Borscht Belt style presentation and timing are readily apparent. He has the audience, and seemingly the press at these events, in the palm of his hand. Horrible as his voice is, he uses it with great precision to get his effects, which are somewhat Rodney Dangerfield-ish in their sense of resentment, fury, and braggadocio. Who else (other than Castro, Khomeini and other modern despots) can hold a crowd of thousands utterly enthralled for 90 minutes or more with mostly off-the-cuff riffs about whatever flies into his mind at the moment. His disinterest in the actual business of being president, his lack of curiosity, his sole focus on "what's on TV," all point to his only true love--the audience/camera, and I'm horrified to say, he's quite good at playing towards their frenzied need for entertainment (for a real estate "tycoon").
1
Biggest loser & travesty of justice. In today's Times, people in Staten Island are arrested for not paying parking ticket fines. In contrast, the picaresque grifter who has swindled numerous people big time, and can't even run a business profitably over an extended period of time is elected the Commander-in-Chief. This is the same lout who the Republicans and the evangelicals adore overwhelmingly.
We are in big trouble.
3
So for a decade, Trump was literally the biggest loser in America...and the IRS let him slide?!
5
People who fail to pay taxes (under a fair system) are not patriots and do not love their country. All those who worship at the altar of Trump and follow his example (learned evidently from his father who supported both tax fraud and Nazi ideology) should be called out for refusing to support the military they pretend to idolize and all the infrastructure which gave them their wealth.
Paying taxes is an honorable act if the Congress which designed the tax code was fair in distributing the tax burden among income brackets. The Trump tax has come very close to establishing federal taxes which will cause massive protests as the effects become more widely known. Only the injection of a temporary stimulus is saving the economy from showing the effects of an incoherent financial policy designed by Trump and implemented by his incompetent appointees.
Those of us who suffered through the Bush II recession and have losses our tax code still allows us to claim years later should feel some sympathy for Trump whose billion dollar losses bought him multiple lifetimes of losses to claim against any income he manages to obtain. Trump's losses gain him only scorn for his poor judgment and financial incompetency from the majority of US voters instead of applause for his "victories" against taxes.
Not paying taxes, losing billions of other people's money on investments and mocking those patriotic US voters who do pay their taxes are reasons Trump is unfit to be President.
4
When I read the title, I knew that Gail would make me smile about this morbid topic. Must read.
3
“financially embattled thousandaire”
“our world-famous thousandaire"
"Frisky little thousandaire"
I'll repeat these a thousand times and more if only the word limit does not get in the way!
2
Nice try.
But we Trump supporters know "fake news" when we see it.
And we know not to take seriously anything that's reported in the "failing" New York Times.
Unless Trump directly quotes them.
MAGA?
@cwc.....and yet....here you are!
1
“Ask not what your country can do for you.... but what you can do for your country “ seems a far way off.
2
Nothing spells moral, intellectual and economic bankruptcy like Donald Trump and the Royal Robber Baron party.
Their public policy is pure misanthropy.
Universal healthcare for Americans ? Nope...can't afford it.
Education funding ?...Sorry, too much money.
Gun safety regulation ?... Nope, not worth saving American lives.
Regulating Wall St ? Not worth it...Make 2008 Great Again
Subsidized childcare ?...Nope, it's your fault for not being rich.
Protecting the water, soil and air ?....Too darn expensive.
Automatic voter registration for all citizens ?...Democracy is for suckers.
Roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, mass transit ?.....Sorry, we spent the money in Iraq and Afghanistan on a useless war to nowhere and created ISIS as a right-wing bonus prize.
Tax cuts for billionaires and giant multinational corporations charged to an American Express card ?......Genius ! Brilliant ! What an incredible use of the exploded national debt to be repaid by American wage slaves while the 0.1% lounge in a bubble bath of capital gain and dividend tax discounts and tax preference items !
Infrastructure for the 0.1%..... red racist meat, a few nickels, potholes, flat tires, gun shots, shabby healthcare, poverty-stricken teachers, 'the Lord', sham elections, corporate judges and record income inequality for everyone else.
What's not to love about Republican public policy and the King of Bankruptcy they worship.
The Grand Old Prosperity cult and their Messiah love a good fraud.
20
“Experience suggests the Good Donald doesn’t last more than a couple of days.”
You’re being too generous here, Gail; try instead hours, minutes, seconds....
4
Most bullies are losers, and Trump has shown himself to be a huge bully. They win battles but lose the interal war with themselves. Sadly, because of the position he is in, Trump's internal turmoil spills out over and poisons all of us. His financial debacle confirms what most people know either factually or instinctively: he never was a winner, he just played one on TV and in the tabloids. God save America from this walking, talking, tweeting, bloviating hoax of a person.
3
Trump the Liar and Trump the Loser is a crucial theme to bring home in the coming election. Let's make it clear that his riches and his ideas are Fool's Gold. Don't people wan the real kind?
2
Fred Trump was a slumlord who got rich on cheap, shoddy housing, and Donald is and always was a crook. Everyone in construction and development in NYC knows this, including my spouse, who has run a construction business for 35 years.
Trump ripped people off. That’s what he did. His projects were always short on money and long on promises. Nobody wanted to work for him. He was left with nothing to buy or sell but his name.
It is incredible that Trump has been able to perpetrate his huge hoax on the American working class. They are the people whom his father exploited for 5 decades and Donald has ripped off for 30 years. His voters won’t let him fall, because every time truly successful people call Trump by his right names - user, phony and crook -Trump voters think that it is they who are being criticized.
You are being criticized, Trump voters, for allowing yourself to be duped. Fooled you once, shame on him; fool you again, and the shame is entirely on you.
9
And no matter what, the man who has everything (except dirt under his fingernails) never smiles, never laughs, is never warm or grateful. He vacillates between smug, petulant, condescending, and apoplectic.
I've never seen such a genuine loser.
4
He's a loser and a con man criminal. Those of us living in the tri-state area who have watched him for forty years have always known that.
The 62 million loser marks who voted for him are being painted with the brush of his odiousness. They will wear his stain for the rest of their lives. Maybe they will learn something from it.
But probably not.
Now is the time for everyone in public and private life to call for him to resign. It goes like this:
Trump should resign. Today.
4
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, right?
I just want to point out to Ms. Collins, with all due respect-- that in 1993, the New York Times purchased the Boston Globe for $1.1 Billion dollars. But in 2013 sold the Boston Globe for mere 70 Million. That makes the New York Times as big, if not bigger loser, (those are your words) than what Mr. Trump lost, thirty years ago...
1
@ChandraPrince
With all due respect- can you please explain to me how your specific comment is really relevant to the true points expressed by Ms. Collins. Your comment is not really related to the points expressed by Ms. Collins. As a point of fact, the New York Times Company may have made an investment which lost value, but it was not involved in multiple bankruptcies and did not overstate the value of the Company's assets to obtain loans. Please check this- facts do matter.
3
Obviously Trump has to say something, because Melania reads the newspapers too.
She was one of clowns that believed that « stable genius » nonsense.
2
He doesn’t care about Melania any more than he cares about anyone else (other than himself).
1
I don't need to see Trump's financial statements to know he's a liar and a cheater and a thief. But I do want to see his tax returns to see just how much money he is personally making off the taxpayers and foreign countries since he became president.
6
I for one am tremendously leery about r plans or cooperation with infrastructure building. There will likely be push everywhere for privatization, selling off existing public thoroughfares to foreign entities turning them into toll roads, taking out interest costing private loans and bonds to pay for projects rather than direct government expenditure.
In short, it is another opportunity for the oligarchy that controls the r party to continue to loot the treasury. Just say "no".
3
Direct from the archives of Trump University: How to become a Millionaire, the Trump Method, Scamming 101.
Choose a Rich Father. Slumlord preferable, Dodgy Tax scams imperative. Said Father use the Tax Schemes to make all his children multimillionaires.
Live a life of careless, useless Narcissism. Multiple marriages and “ families “ a nice touch, for publicity.
Make Friends in Low places. Foreigners in Countries with lax Tax Laws and Bank Secretary preferred.
Casino’s and “ Luxury “ Properties , great idea. The more tacky, the better. Think Las Vegas meets upscale Trailer Park.
Parlay an odious, “ Reality “ TV show and ghostwritten “ Books “ into a political career.
Against all odds, common sense, and History, “ Win “ the Election. Now, the REAL scamming begins, at Taxpayer expense.
The Trump Brand goes Worldwide. No Dictator left behind.
Everything, and Everyone is for Sale, price negotiable.
And for a last bon mot : Lose a Billion Dollars, Of other Peoples Money, and claim to be a self made billionaire.
Gail, if not for his “ election” he would be a Hundredaire.
Seriously.
7
The “stable genius thousandaire.” Yes indeed. Donald Trump.
4
Irony of ironies, you were right about this irresponsible too-full-of-himself man-child, a long time ago. You have to give it to him though, as he hasn't changed a bit...other than abusing the power of the stolen presidency (with Putin's help). Too bad he is so ignorant and doubling down on arrogance, as his demagoguery seems to take effect on a clueless base that, having stopped to listen to all his malevolent nonsense (always on the attack), is adamant on their cult of personality (fascism personalized). And now, this poor rich con man is trying to pocked congress to his will. What could possibly go wrong?
1
Trump is insane. He deserves to be neutered and confined to a small room for the rest of his days. At that point we can focus on his co-conspirators, which should keep our courts busy for the next 40 years.
2
I am originally from New Jersey - home to the Trump Taj Mahal, etc. I knew then and know now that Trump is a just a boardwalk carny and nothing more.
5
The 800 lb. gorilla in the closet is debt---if that lock on that closet comes loose, watch out...Oh, laundering money from the Russians won't be an option.
1
I loathe Trump but I find the endless dunciads against him as predictable as they are boring. The press and Trump are like watching an ancient married couple who have hated each other for years have yet another public fight. Everyone sighs. And flees.
Boring, boring, boring.
3
@roger But you did read and comment! Obviously, you fall in the same category.
1
We all know Trump...blowhard, liar and exaggerator. If he had any money or had made any money he would be waving his tax returns around for everyone to see and be jealous. All he would talk about every day would be his tax returns...my guess? He's broke!
5
His only “success” was The Apprenice, and that show was just awful. I always wondered, what kind of a fool watches this show? Now I know.... the kind of fool that voted for Trump. Where do these people come from?
3
Listen up, Dems! Gail Collins has just struck gold with her comment about "Frisky Little Thousandaire."
This genius phrase should be in every Dem speech or bulletin board until e-day. Imagine Trump trying to insult everyone who says this. Trump and his toadies would soil themselves at the mere thought of "thousandaire" going viral.
Imagine a patriot standing up at a Trump rally with a "Thousandaire" poster. Trump would have a cow on the spot.
1
The Borrowed Billionaire. See what I have? An empire of real estate, casinos, golf courses, a private Big jet. I own $Billions$! I can teach you how! Watch my show. Vote for me!
Other people's money. If you owe someone $10,000 you are a debtor. If you owe Deuchebank $10 Million, you are a partner. If people invest in your properties, you profit by charging them management fees then declaring bankruptcy.
And, best of all, they can't indict you while you are still president, then you jump in your jet and fly to Russia by way of the Arab Emirates, or any of the other 30 or so countries with no extradition treaty with the U.S. So long, suckers!
1
Trump is in the 99th percentile of those who are: dishonest, weak, insecure, ignorant, incompetent, racist, lazy, violent, manipulative, vindictive, cruel, and narcissistic.
How do we reconcile, having lawfully elected such an individual, with our belief that our country represents democratic and rule-of-law based governance?
3
@JS It's the electoral college. If we have learned anything with trump, it is that this outdated mechanism for electing our president has got to go.
The Borrowed Billionaire. See what I have? An empire of real estate, casinos, golf courses, a private Big jet. I own $Billions$! I can teach you how! Watch my show. Vote for me!
Other people's money. If you owe someone $10,000 you are a debtor. If you owe Deuchebank $10 Million, you are a partner. If people invest in your properties, you profit by charging them management fees then declaring bankruptcy.
And, best of all, they can't indict you while you are still president, then you jump in your jet and fly to Russia by way of the Arab Emirates, or any of the other 30 or so countries with no extradition treaty with the U.S. So long, suckers!
1
Turns out the apprentice is really the biggest loser. Next!
2
Infrastructure was part of brilliant Jared’s portfolio but he got busy protecting us from Russian spies, hangin’ with BFF MbS, and bringing peace to the Middle East.
3
By this point the whole world and most of America knows trump is a dim witted flim-flam man. Seems like his die hart base and all elected GOP members are the only ones who believe him!! That said he has given those “gleaming new roads, bridges, railways and waterways.” to his pals, the top 1% while the most powerful man in the world, mitch McConnell, blocks anything he or the people that pay him off don't like.
2
Trump is part of mentality hat getting money as much as you can and not taking responsibility for losses incurred is acceptable. Trump is at the top as a corrupt person without morals. Even his ghost writer says he is a narcissist and sociopath (he has some conscience but it is SMALL, whereas a psycho has none).
Go after him.
1
I start and end the day with the NYTimes. Thanks folks.
1
There is no "Good Donald."
4
Without his Daddy's money, Donald Trump would be Ralph Kramden.
3
@Paul
Ah, c'mon! Ralph was funny, had a decent job, one wife, friends, & meant well.
1
@Patsy47 - Ralph was a mean guy.
1
Where was the Southern District of New York, Attorney General of New York and the IRS for what, 40 years? This presidency is a failure of simple law enforcement. A blind eye is cast on the rich, like the rich kid who rapes and gets off. We let that rape culture exist and indeed flourish in business. We're all being financially raped by these rich monsters like Trump and our law enforcement, Justice Department and Attorney General just sit and watch it go on, business as usual. Democrats and Republicans. This is as much a failure of government and an indicator of corruption at the highest levels than it is about one crook. There are too many rich crooks. "lock them up"
2
@Joseph rudy guilliani was US Attorney in NYC, during the NYC trump years. He is reaping his reward by mangling the English language in defense of trump.
1
Trump flips every truth on its back and turns it inside out. If he said he made a deal with Kim Jung Un, you can be pretty much sure he didn't. If he said he didn't take money from his father, you can be pretty darn sure he did. If he said he made a billion you can be 99% positive he lost a billion. If he said he didn't pay to hush a porn star, you can be sure she took $130K to the bank. He seems unable to not lie about everything. If you're negotiating with him, it seems like his cards are exposed from the beginning. Everything is a lie, and our enemies know that.
4
@Larry Bennett
He said to a reporter that he tells the truth when he can.
When is that?
1
Debt is a way to get rich if you can somehow avoid paying off the loans. You can lose a lot and still be rich if you borrow even more and then don't pay it back. No doubt Melania's pre-nup says that if they get a divorce, she is not responsible for his debts.
What does it say about our country that would elect such an obvious con artist?
2
@Charlie Euchner that we have an outdated and undemocratic system for electing our presidents.
Calling him "king of the losers" makes it seem too grandiose. "Loser among losers" is a better fit.
3
Trump Rules:
—everything Trump says is a lie or mistruth
—anything Trump accuses someone else of is something he is guilty of
—anyone who doesn't agree with him completely is a "loser" (and Trump is never a loser)
3
Please, Gail. Don’t call him King of anything. It’ll only encourage him.
3
I get it, Gail, but...please replace the word "king" in your title! Anything but that.
By the way, teachers, firefighters, law enforcement, lawyers, doctors, emergency techs, secretaries, playground monitors, grocery checkers, and street maintenance workers, movie stars, dentists...and more...we all pay our taxes.
1
King? King? Don’t say King....
2
Ya this is the 'yuuuge' middle class savior. His combined cabinet is the richest in history and he drained the swamp alright, he drained the water and added a few more crocodiles to run amok. He is getting the "best people" which have turned out to be the worst. Any good ones abandoned ship ASAP. His promise of restraint of special interests are evidenced by his own advancement of personal wealth by presidency and the rich getting richer. His delirious followers make every excuse for him even when he is shown to be ignorant or the biggest business loser in history. Hopefully the truth will win out before our democracy sinks. Then, just watch the followers abandon the sinking ship like scurrying rats when this all time loser eventually goes down.
3
Trump's famous quote about not paying taxes "makes me smart", no little donnie it makes you a deadbeat.
2
So it turns out he was the “yugest” financial LOSER ever, the word he fears the most. Can someone come up with a good nickname to goad him into imploding on Twitter?
He's a barker, shouting "step right up, folks."
1
I'm currently traveling through Europe and the hardest thing to bear is the disgrace of being associated with Trump and his band of sycophants.
2
Filing status, single, no children, no house, no itemization ever, the most tax person in America. I must pay and pay I have for 40 years.
But our President gets a free ride for being a failure.
Only in America.
1
Trump seems to think he played his lenders for suckers, used "Other People's Money" to maintain his lavish lifestyle, and then when he ran out of cash, left his lenders holding worthless - or at least devalued - properties. His "art of the deal" is - intentionally - to pull as much cash out of properties as he can, without ever paying it back. I think there's a word for that, but it's not business, it's fraud. And he's gleeful because he gets away with it.
2
How could anybody be surprised by these numbers? While many people idolized his business acumen because he had his name on so many buildings, people didn't pay attention to all the bankruptcies he filed for. He singlehandedly killed Atlantic City as a gambling center by getting the gullible to invest in his pie in the sky ventures. After taking money from the businesses he filed for bankruptcy and left his investors in the lurch. He used his dishonest children to lure in the gullible.
If you see the quality of the junk on television, it is not a wonder that people were wowed by the apprentice. Trump knew nothing about business. The producers of the show essentially ran it while Trump specialized in his catchphrase, "You're fired". The idiot even tried to copyright the phrase. He is no better than the Kardashian airheads. He runs the country as if it was his TV show. When the GOP wake up?
2
@S.L.
Not a fan of the Kardashian clan but it's not right to insult them as above.
Hilary Clinton named 35% of the population as "deplorables". Trump has named 100% of taxpayers as chumps.
For anyone who sees automatic deductions on the paystub each week, it must be infuriating.
For anyone who reports income on the honor system...yikes.
2
For years, Trump could fool the world into thinking that he was a successful businessman while using funds from stupid bankers and his daddy. It's more difficult to hide the truth when you are president of the U.S.A.
If his base cared about the truth, they never would have voted for him to begin with. Evangelicals, who once decried "moral relativists", don't care either, because he is delivering the supreme court that will end Roe v. Wade. The 1% doesn't care because they got their tax cuts.
The rest of us will continue to watch as Trump is slowly stripped bare. All of his lies and corruptions are being dragged into the daylight. His best option for changing the focus prior to 2020, is to start a war with Iran. Brace yourself.
1
Making money is for losers. Losing money is for winners.
Goes right along with war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength we hear from Trump and the GOP today.
The thing about this that bothers me, as I have come to understand the trumpian mind, is that POTUS45 doesn't worry about being found out to have broken the law by committing tax fraud, or even having Byzantine connections to Russian money or Saudi money, or obstructing justice since he has always done what he wants; he worries about being found out to not be as rich and impressive as he has always claimed. He doesn't care about the law or norms of behavior or ethics or what's wrong or right. What spikes his juice is that his boundless insecurity is vulnerable, is open to attack, and he faces the public awareness, agreement and scorn that he is far less rich and impressive than he would like us to think. He's the rich, spoiled teen (inheriting his father's great wealth) who has the rolled up sock in his pocket, to impress the ladies, but they have found out what that bulge really is. He's a fraud, a Wizard of Oz, and frauds hate being found out. His Homeric story is that he's a stable genius businessman, jumping over tall skyscrapers he's built with a wave of his hand. He doesn't care about the world discovering he is a criminal; he's worried about us discovering that he's much smaller than he really is.
2
Always a criminal is our leader. But I have to admit he has made, sort of, an art of it. But I think that in the end, like the mafia don who has crossed a few too many, he will get his own set of cement boots.
Gail is right on the point bringing up infrastructure. Then there is healthcare, climate & energy refocusing structure, social security, military budgets...
It's the economy masterplan, stupid. It seems abundantly clear that Donald Trump has no clue. The lies he tells about who is paying his tariffs is alarming. It's us, stupid. Our poor farmers have had the rug pulled out from under their livelihoods. He has no clue. Some of the medium and small farms may never recover.
It's all illusion delusion. He spins illusions about himself and his abilities and knowledge. He believes them, his base believes them and too many others are just fine with whatever.
They give him credit for an economy that's 10 years strong.
As if only Trump could keep what's good about it going. While he is far more likely to crash the economy.
Our billionaire grifter in chief is being subsidized by our tax dollars, while he scams more. Scammer of our generation!
Hope that he ultimately spends the rest of his life in prison after he leaves office.
It's hard to believe that the GOP has sunk to the level of deifying this grifter. And rich McConnell is Trump's poster boy. So much for their prior, fraudulent political philosophy!
One the most demoralizing and disillusioning aspects of Trump's presidency is that there are seemingly intelligent people in America who are still willing to believe his lies, read his twitter tantrums, attend his rallies. How can anyone support such an appallingly poor "leader". More appalling, how can so many Congressmen and Senators stand idly by while this buffoon tears us apart?
I consider myself a patriotic American. And I find it frightening that they too call themselves American. I feel like we are on totally different wavelengths, living in alternate universes...how could anyone be so deaf, dumb and blind to his many, many faults?
43 states drinking water are contaminated. School shootings weekly. Trade wars.
The Great American Heist brought to you by a second generation grifter with no education other than MINE!
Keep up the good work Gail. Don’t stop, make him cry!
1
But ultimately the Dems are such slaves to old paradigms, primarily the military-industrial complex, that they will never take the bold steps necessary to free America from the grips of the rich and faux riche such as Trump.
Everybody relax, the President has a backup plan. A couple of trillion here, a couple of trillion there among friends, comme si comme ca. You know the old saying, "You gotta' waste other people's money to make money." Back to the backup plan, if the country tanks the president will just go to his wells for a bailout, Deutsche Bank and Capital One. "What's in your wallet. Give it to me. Ausgezeichnet." Words he lives by.
In the accompanying photo, is that a tie, or a bib?
1
The president is a multi-faceted fraud. He can lie about his lies, and then lie when he’s caught lying about it. It’s a brilliant strategy. It’s such an unexpected trait in a U.S. president that the very audacity of it all makes it hard to dissect.
We’re used to criminals, liars, war mongers, philanderers, incompetent sleazebags and thieves, but not all wrapped up in one individual. And we don’t expect that someone like that would get elected president. But the very impossibility of it all somehow made it inevitable.
The president can turn his financial fiascos into brilliant strategies. He can boast about his failures and brag about his inadequacies. You can almost hear the rattle as his supporters nod approvingly at their man’s cleverness.
The presidency is a pulpit from which he preaches a sort of reverse prosperity gospel. There’s success in failure. There’s money to be made in going broke. Lies are the new truth.
His associates are criminals, liars, frauds or once-honorable people who have come under his spell. Once they find they’re in too deep, they must double down on their denials. It’s like a black hole. Once past the event horizon, there’s no going back.
So a worthless millionaire is selling snake oil to a population that is slowly going broke and piling up debt that will have to be paid by the next president while he brags that it didn't happen on his watch.
5
C'mon out to New Mexico, Le Ducktail. Our Native Americans will show you how to profitably run a casino.
1
Good goad Gail. I hope the thousandaire label sticks.
Appalling as Donald Trump has proven himself to be for so long and on so many levels, what's even more disturbing is that tens of millions of Americans are perfectly comfortable with this shameless demagogue as president. Not only that, they want him to be re-elected.
Day in and day out, this caustic con man shows utter contempt for the Constitution, the rule of law and the very idea of truth itself, yet these people are somehow pleased. When they look in the mirror, one can only wonder what they see.
2
Funny.
Back in the day when you called him a 'thousandaire', you were actually over-estimating his wealth.
'Hundredaire' would have been overstatement.
Your average kid delivering newspapers door to door back then earned more, and paid more taxes, than "Mr. Trump'.
1
So what you’re saying, Gail, is that Trump wasn't just "The Apprentice" when he entered the White House. He was also "The Biggest Loser."
By the time the SDNY, the NYAG , and the NY Legislature is done with the Donald his brand won't be worth 8 cents.
.....and the Trump Library will be DJT pushing a book cart in prison.
He's a sociopath; his crazy stamina is unnatural.
I Love NY.
2
Your characterization of Trump as an “financially embattled thousandaire” prompted me to look back at that time and at a woman who consistently got the better of Trump --Leona Helmsley.
Leona Helmsely ....“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” [That, of course, was the Royal WE.]
New York Post headline:
"TRUMP FAILS TO TOPPLE QUEEN OF MEAN"
By Dareh Gregorian
December 17, 1999 | 5:00am
Forbes:
Mar 19, 2002, 02:55pm
"Soap Opera Ends As Trump Sells Out"
By Mark Lewis
"Donald Trump Donald Trump's attempt to seize control of the Empire
State Building was no more successful than King Kong's. But unlike the
ape, Trump at least may land on his feet.
Trump said today that he will surrender control of the Manhattan
landmark to a partner of his bitter rival Leona Helmsley Leona Helmsley."
New York Times:
"Helmsley, in a Countersuit Against Trump, Alleges a Conspiracy as Big
as the Empire State"
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON MAY 31, 1995
"In the latest chapter of a long-running feud, two of Harry B.
Helmsley's companies filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing Donald J. Trump of conspiring to extort money from the companies, through which Mr. Helmsley operates the Empire State Building."
If only he'd stayed in New York.
Donald Trump lost more money than any other American citizen from 1985 through 1994. Therefore, Donald Trump is "The Biggest Loser."
The Donald loves giving so many other people nicknames; the most appropriate one I've heard for him is "Loser Don."
Apparently Gail has absolutely no knowledge of tax breaks given to developers. Do you think he's the only one?
1
Thousandair s infrastructure plan revealed
2 for me
1 for all the other grifters who say nice things about me
Used kitty litter for potholes. Hey, it’s like gravel, huh
I wish the NY Times would stop publishing photos of Trump. Don't feed his ego. In fact, publish photos of McConnell, Giuliani, and Barr daily. It will infuriate Trump to see them getting attention, and perhaps he'll throw them under the bus, with all the other fools who try to serve him.
Democrats need to investigate national polling systems and processes and economic numbers.
Corrupt Trump’ s Russian buddies have infiltrated and corrupted America’s internet, technology, polls, and are most likely corrupting the inflated economic numbers that are providing trump his only source for bombastic boasting.
1
"Trump would like us to believe all that red ink was actually a canny business strategy. 'You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes,' he tweeted after the Times report, adding that 'it was sport.'"
Translation: Trump is bragging about his tax fraud. Even though it's too late to prosecute him for these crimes from the 80s to the 90s, he clearly illustrates a lifelong pattern of lawless behavior, which never stopped when he was installed as president.
We ended up electing a career criminal who skated on his inherited wealth.
Donald Trump was not a "worse businessman than we thought." Anyone who has watched Mr. Trump in the public arena since he declared his intention to run for the presidency realized what a doofus he really is. The majority of voting Americans thought he was not qualified for the office of POTUS since Hillary won the majority of the popular vote. His qualifications for "businessman" were not really a consideration, nevertheless we saw how badly he conducted himself in public, which suggested how he must have behaved in his former so-called business career. It was obvious he was a lying braggart and likely delusional in is narcissistic egocentricity. Nevertheless he fooled enough people to win the Electoral College vote in 2016. But, a majority of Americans have never approved of his performance in office. Although the qualifications for POTUS and Billionaire may not be the same there are enough overlaps that have made many of us question his success in business, despite his having won the presidency thanks to our peculiar way of electing a POTUS.
‘On behalf of the millions of Americans who filed their I.R.S. returns last month, I want to say that it is always a treat to hear our president explain how only suckers pay taxes.”
And that is exactly the point. Due to the ignorance of a large percentage of our population we now have a white collar pickpocket as president. How nice.
1
I never thought I'd ever have anything in common with Trump. But now, thanks to the inimitable Gail Collins and the NYT, I find that like the Donald, I, too, am "a financially embattled thousandaire" (retired academic, pension, Social Security, some savings--oh, and equity on my paid for co-op apartment).
What I never understood is how important it is in this fast-paced, information- and algorithm-driven modern economy to lose large sums of money so that banks and investments firms can lend you more, which you can also lose--if I understand this correctly--as leverage for those same firms to lend you even more in order to recoup the previous losses they incurred when they bet on you in the first place.
It's sort of like dealing crack to addicts without the pesky legal issues, right?
Then, when you've driven yourself and everyone around you who ever trusted you into a financial hole so deep and boggy that nothing can ever extract you, you run for national office. Have I got that right? Do you need to be a reality television star at some point or is that an individual stylistic choice?
It's just that I was about to announce my candidacy for national office but I don't want to jump the gun.
2
Hang in there, Gail, & thanks for another column to help us retain our sanity. Really, we all need to keep reminding ourselves that this is *not* the way things are supposed to be, & that this madness, although long brewing, is fairly recent. With that in mind, can I float a suggestion? How about all of us here fly our flags every day in the distress position? Fly the flag upside down every day until this nightmare is over. Maybe a show of fellowship will give a lift to the ones who are getting very tired and discouraged. Thanks, Gail.
We thought he hid his taxes because he wasn’t worth as much as he said. Now do find out he is actually worthless.
Imagine, if it's even possible, the self-loathing Donald Trump tries to suppress when he declares someone to be a "loser".
It's off the scale.
Gail brings up the issue of Trump as a “businessman” which is a category to which he does not belong. Trump is an accomplished bilker and liar. He took other people’s’ money and lost it, declaring their loss as his own for tax purposes. A skill, no doubt, but not a business skill in the usual sense.
1
Gail: You do know that there's a difference between reported net income and net worth, don't you? Or do you?
BTW, because the NY Times and the rest of the media have decided to report on his tax returns as an example of his lying or exaggerating, the much better story -- like Romney, he didn't pay much in taxes -- is lost in a irrelevant meme. Do you seriously think that anyone is going to vote against Trump because of his tax returns from 25 years ago?
1
The lack of shame of Repubs is jaw-dropping.
I mean, if they got rid of Trump, they'd still have Pence to appoint judges and tout tax breaks.
WHY are they keeping this demonstrably incompetent narcissist on his throne? How can they possibly be so invested in one corrupt, incompetent, fraud, to the point of forever abridging their own power?
They were never very good at looking two steps down the road, but this is unbelievable.
2
Who is to blame for our national status as "World's Biggest Suckers"? Each and every American who believed that America could be great without our having to pay a penny. Each and everyone of us who acted like we were entitled to riches, if only everyone else, and our government, would get out of our way. Each and every American who voted based solely on their pocketbook, without an eye on our society as a whole, or on what any other Americans might need in order for us all to move forward.
And so, here is our creation - the man-child born of our national greed and addiction to unreality: "Our World-Famous Thousandaire Con-Man-in-Chief."
1
Donald Trump is bad.
Not just bad at governing.
Not just bad at business.
Not just bad at marriage.
He is a bad person.
It's time to ask America if we can be great if we are not good, and if we can be good if we have a bad person as President.
Dan Kravitz
1
Remember when his girlfriend Marla Maples and his wife were at the same snow lodge skiing. Remember when it was on the front page of the tabloid Remember when he was running the failed casinos. This man is a con man with no character or soul and nothing more.
Unfortunately he has made the lives of real Americans miserable. History will show that the con man was a traitor to democracy
We haven't had a president that lies as much as trump. That is profiting from the office like trump. That is a con artist, fraud and demagogue like trump. We haven't had a president that is as ignorant, that creates chaos daily and is as mean spirited toward fellow Americans.
Everything he does devalues the integrity, dignity, decorum and respect of the office, that may affect the presidential office and our standing in the world for a long time.
If we don't stop it in the tracks right now--what will come next?
If that doesn't bother you, I just have to wonder where your center is. How much trash talk, lies and conning will you accept from this man before you say ENOUGH?
So Trump is living large off of Deutsche Bank loans, Daddy’s rescue money, and quite possibly some serious funding from Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Biggest huckster in American history.
The man of 10,000 lies. What did the rest of us do wrong that so many fools in Trump country voted for him? It's a national embarrassment to have him our office, kind of like the Music Man, but without the happy ending.
Gail, you've taken off the nice girl humor and nailed that fraudulent bully. Great column.
1
Hopelessness is everywhere. Really wish we'd just sell the place, USA, to China and get it over with. Let Trump take his cash and leave us alone.
I suspect he will leave the White House the same way that he left his bankrupt businesses. He left the stockholders of his bankrupt Taj Mahal Casino holding worthless stock, while he pocketed millions. He will leave the White House with the federal debt several trillion dollars higher than it was when he entered office, while he will have siphoned millions from the US Treasury to pay bills incurred at his resorts and hotels for his many weekends golfing.
With the Mueller report, trump had some success in reframing the investigation as being about 'collusion' — which Mueller made clear it wasn't — in order to proclaim innocence.
It's telling that 'bad Hodor' is not even trying to reframe the issue around his taxes, but is instead choosing tight-lipped obstruction.
I’m not sure king of the losers is accurate, I think I’d ascribe that title to the Democrats who seem to be beaten by Trump at every corner
1
So who's the loser, Donald?
Well, frisky little thousandaire in all honour, but I think the most fitting moniker for our ersatz prez is "The Biggest Loser".
1
Democratic candidates need to emphasize over and over again key points about Trump:
1. He lies all the time (10,000 and counting)
2. He and his administration are corrupt to the core (the worst in American history).
3. He is a failure and failed businessman.
4. He is a con artist.
Keep repeating the core truths about this pathological and dangerous idiot.
Gail, you have a beautiful face, whatever Dopey Donald says.
As Gail's "...Frisky little thousandaire" continues amok,
I again point out H. L. Menckon's prediction from almost a hundred years ago: "As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by an outright moron."
1
This is all fine and dandy and entertaining and irrelevant to the fiery-eyed MAGA's who don't care if those kids being taken from their moms at the border are sent to some American Auschwitz, never to be seen again. Doesn't matter. The Donald is The One for them and always will be, no matter what. Literally. No matter what.
Our problem, of course, is that the Archie Bunker egos of the members of Trump's base are even more neurotically fragile than his. That's why they love him for never apologizing or admitting error. And that's why they simply cannot afford to admit his flaws, because that would make them wrong in supporting him. So NOTHING can change them. Exactly like Hitler's fool backers standing in the ruins of Berlin and still thinking HE was "right." But what about the non-true believers who voted for him? If just a couple of percent of them change their minds in 2020, he's toast. Too bad he's gone UP, not down, in the polls since Mueller's report. America may yet be destroyed by its Boomer voters (the core of Trump's support), as the cherry on top of all they've done for decades to weaken American and make China's job of passing us in the fast lane a lot easier.
Gail, loved this line..." how only suckers pay taxes"....Why? Because I know that in the confines of his inner sanctum, Trump ridicules the stupidity of the people who vote for him. He knows he has them in the palm of his hand. He could care less about the debt of our country. Hey, he got away with it and the clueless society we have now will "party hardy" on the Constitution, the rights of the free press, debt, guns, healthcare etc. Isn't that what is going on? Carnival barker in chief, aka frisky little hundredaire.
"Useless Nothingburger." Now there's a moniker I can get behind. "Not my 'useless nothingburger'!"
"Nothingburger"? "Thousandaire"?
Thank you Gail Collins! Love it!
2
Sorry to have to say this to one who was once a fellow homie from the ‘nati Gail, but even your lighthearted effort to make this more fun is in peril. So many of our fellow citizens have been conned and bamboozled by this creep he should have a big scarlet “L” tattooed on his forehead. Thanks for trying though. Lots of bitter underneath here and even your sweet style falters under the constant emission of foul, obscuring, gasconade that puffs daily from the Trumpster. Perhaps you are laboring with the grotesque bulk of this steaming disaster. If so, I can recommend old Muppets Show reruns to help you snap out of it. A whole different - and healthy - kind of silliness.
It is beyond me how someone like trump can go thru life with the whole world constantly laughing at the fool.
This snake in a suit is one of the biggest liars in the nation. And he is a bumbling idiot with decades of bumbling losses to prove it.
The title of your piece. 💯
I suppose, in a way, we're better off flying this lying thousandaire all over the world to lie to other people. That way, we don't have to listen to it as much. I'm appalled that Americans haven't done something to stop this vomiting of lies that trump produces.
Keep calling him what he is, a loser thousandaire, it’ll drive him nuts. I mean nuttier.
3
Now we learn that Trump showed losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars "for sport". If that was his worst conduct, we'd have been extremely lucky as a nation.
But he's done much worse for sport. He's had gushing praise for neo-Nazis and the KKK. He's loved putting Hispanic infants in cages. He's gotten off more than once on bringing this nation on the precipice of nuclear war with his unhinged tweets. He absolutely glowed during his toadying performance in Helsinki, as he kowtowed to his master. He's loved every minute of trashing our international standing, prestige and reputation. For him, wreaking damage on this scale is sport.
But this is precisely why he was elected. His voters love that he has trashed every good quality of this nation. Tolerance and equality? They scream at his rallies "Jews will not replace us." For sport. They scream "Soil and Blood" at their marches. For sport. They engage in escalating hate crimes against minorities, on his watch, as he looks the other way. For sport. And many of more of us will suffer at his hands, at their hands, all for the sole purpose of their entertainment.
In short, Trump destroys everything for sport. He is incapable of creating anything. And like his followers, he will never accept responsibility for the damage he's caused. And finally, with the enthusiastic backing of his more than sixty million rabid followers, he'll destroy this nation. For sport.
2
Calling somebody a loser? The Democrats have regressed to seventh grade.
1
@Rick
You mean like Low Energy Jeb, Lyin Ted, Sleepy Joe, Rocket Man, Lyin Hillary? Shall I go on?
There're countless dictators come to mind from recent history...Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Franco, Mussolini, Tojo, etc...
All manipulators, liars, bullies, cruel, fear mongering psychos don't require any sophistication or talent, you just have to incessantly repeat the same lies every chance you have, as simple as that.
Considering that the only book he read was Mein Kampf that explains a lot.
As for so-called deplorables these are mostly people like him, just shameless rich con men, whose business is to be the best in FRAUD and TAX CHEATS, at the expense of average Joe...
Only little people pay taxes, right!
And even among all these people, he is the BIGGEST LIAR and the BIGGEST LOSER.
2
Are you trolling the president, Gail?
Watch out: He might send you your column, torn out of the newspaper, with an insult scrawled across it!
1
@Bystander with a hold Sharpie.
@Bystander
I meant gold Sharpie.
Gail Collins, 2016 election sore-loser.
1
Come on Gail, give the man some credit: if he can't build at least he can blow up - NAFTA, Paris Accords, Iran nuclear deal and don't forget what he replaced them with...Nothing. He is a destroyer not a builder. He never built anything but a flim flam.
1
I can't wait for Elizabeth Warren to refer to Deranged Donald as that "frisky little thousandaire".
In the meantime, I don't think Sarah Sanders is going to keep Ms. Collins' press pass to the WH on a back burner for her. Great column!
Your unfailing humor that you always gift us with does not take away from the sad reality of the destruction of our country perpetuated daily by him and his GOP conflicted complicit comrades. It is great humor from great Gail but anger, sadness as well for the truth hits us in the face daily...he won’t stop. Period. Evidence daily shows he is spiraling out of control, aided and abetted by all the sycophants around him..and the morbidly compromised GOP....is there one we can point a shining star to and say, ah, thankfully “X” is there to control his lunacy..and save us? Nope.
And what is the most prevalent hitler’ish aspect of him? His death wish. And Putin will suck that dry until he throws him...and us...to the wolves. And we are officially known as The United States of Russia.😢. The most honest thing he has said, perhaps in his life? ‘No, in our 1-1/2 hour talk we did not discuss the 2020 election.’
America, if you’re listening...Wake Up.
1
“Trump-thousandaire — Trump thousandaire
Can only be a fake — gadzillionaire!
Fake gadzilionaire!
He’s collected laundered coppers in his sparklett’s jar
With minders like McConnell, Graham, and Barr
Winking and enabling federal income tax shame
Rendering justice and any kind of accountability—
Lame.”
1
Donald Trump has a new book coming out called “The Art of the Con”. Ted Cruz was so right when he said Trump was the ultimate con artist. Just ask the banks he shafted.
1
Trump is the ugly underbelly of America...heartless, shallow, intellectually dishonest, morally corrupt, soulless, loyal only to himself, lazy, gluttonous, arrogant, entitled, vain, humorless, godless, pompous, a cheat, a braggart, a sexist, a bigot, a liar and he thinks these are all qualities to be admired. Nothing is worth what we, as a nation, are losing on a daily basis. This man who says that he is the most transparent man who has ever served as president, while being the least transparent, is actually altering reality and truth. Regardless of one’s politics, we should all find this abhorrent.
2
@Kathy Garland Trump cannot alter truth or reality, nor can anyone. The truth will set us free, but only if we face it and take our lumps. We don't face the truth, preferring "reality TV" and Kardashian fantasy lives. Our trouble is of our own making and we get what we, as a country, deserve.
American exceptionalism, anyone?
1
He got elected President and the resident Illinois-by-way-of-Arkansas genius was beaten first by an unknown, one-term back bencher, then by a debt-ridden con man with five kids by three women. Run her again. Please. Or her clone, handsy Joe.
1
Gail Collins is pretty much the best excuse to keep subscribing to this paper. "Frisky little thousandaire." Thank you so much for reminding us how to smile in the face of ignominious stupidity.
2
Trump is one of the greatest thousandaire losers of all time.
1
"Useless nothingburger". Perfect description.
1
Stupid works. It worked for Hitler. It works for Trump. What really scares me is what it suggests about our world.
1
Great, another damning fact, and ... No one cares!
Really, no one cares.
His base, and the Republicans know he is a liar, and a cheat, and they do not care.
The only time President Trump told the truth: " If i shoot someone on 5th avenue, they will still vote for me!"
All this investigative reporting, while impressive, changes nothing and alters no one's votes.
In the end, we need a democrat, who can actually beat Trump. That is not a left wing candidate.
1
After 2 1/2 years of this mess, the simple and obvious tag to describe Trump is “fraud”. Throw out all the other vitriol and name calling. Above all else he is a phony every way and every day. The consistency of this renders him a cartoon figure. Living hell would have one tied to a chair forced to listen to Trump blather on in endless press conferences and rallies. I can no longer look at the man or hear his voice. The whole spectacle is nauseating.
1
Countless dictators come to mind from recent history...Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Franco, Mussolini, Tojo, etc...
All manipulators, liars, bullies, cruel, fear mongering psychos. Doesn't require any sophistication, you just have to incessantly repeat the same lies every chance you have, as simple as that, and our own lunatic use this primitive tactic every chance he gets.
Consider the only book he read was Mein Kampf...
As for so-called deplorables these are mostly people like him, just shameless rich con men, whose business is to be the best in FRAUD and TAX CHEATS, at the expense of average Joe...
Only little people pay taxes, right!
And even among all these people, he is the BIGGEST LIAR and the BIGGEST LOSER.
2
PLEASE!!!!!!!!! use your brain before writing these silly articles. Trump owns buildings, golf courses, jets, helicopters and holds the highest office in the country. What a LOSER!!!!!
NYT please find someone with a brain. Use your editorial discretion and save your friends from these embarrassing articles.
Obviously written by someone who has never tried to create a job. Good Lord help us.
1
@Bill
We're not at alll sure that he "owns" any of these things. If something is mortgaged to the hilt, or is shared by several entities - individuals or companies - can one person claim "ownership"?
7
Let's not forget how much everybody loved this guy, "The Donald" as the first of he three wives crowned him. His ghost written book helped trigger a "negotiation skills" industry, and intelligent businesspeople crowned him "Dealmaker," a moniker he eventually parlayed into a lucrative hit TV show, possibly the only actual paycheck he ever earned.
His marital infidelity and rank promiscuity were fodder for radio shock jocks and late night talk shows. He made cameos in movies, always the smartass mogul rich beyond imagining, scoffing at lessers struggling to raise their kids, live decently, pay their taxes.
Then a huge segment of the country decided to crown the guy our country's leader. What we got was exactly as billed. He bragged in his workplace about his love of sexual assault. He bragged in a televised presidential debate about the size of his...you all heard him. He bragged to adoring voters about his cunning, his hatred of those protesting his ascendancy to America's Iron Throne, his flummoxing of all political foes, his unabashed admiration of the worst despots in earth, his utter disdain for those who want police to serve and protect.
He is likely not really a billionaire, but he really is president, and lots of people like it that way. He has slithered through the fingers of all who've tried for decades to corner him, subdue him, stop him. Now we're counting on politicians to pull it off.
It's not a fair fight.
7
Trump just put out a tweet changing his story again. He claims he avoided paying taxes in the 80's and 90's as a form of civil disobedience just like his favorite author Thoreau. Henry David Thoreau and Trump think a lot alike regarding huge things.
5
@José Franco
Mr Trump reading? Thoreau?
I am having a hard time with that....
Trump is an excellent businessman. He has been able to live high on the hog by having everyone else pay his bills. No different now than it was then. As for infrastructure, he recently had his name put on a wall. Should've been a stone wall, a more fitting metaphor.
5
@DBR
What wall?
Around a dog walk?
Early on, I thought at some point, there would be an A Face in the Crowd moment: that someone would leave a microphone on and the public would hear Trump's own words, see his swagger, note the absolute lack of substance and finally recognize him for the grifter and charlatan he is.
Well, we've had nearly four years of the microphone left running. We've heard him in his own words and yet, as of today, Nate Silver's website still has him at over a 42% approval rating and, of course, with the electoral college, that's quite possibly enough to get him four more years starting in 2021.
4
@Wanda
The problem is that his supporters like him precisely because of his swagger and lack of substance. They celebrate him for being a grifter and charlatan. These people don't want someone of true intelligence and accomplishment to look up to. They want someone who validates their own lack of ambition and substance. The thing that would turn them off to Trump is if he suddenly started to speak in grammatically correct, logical sentences.
@jim I am afraid you are right. Maybe not the lack of ambition so much as the substance. The guy sitting on the bar stool who could run the free world if only we gave him the chance ended up getting elected. Very depressing. This is of course how military takeovers occur: he tests the waters with more and more outrageous jokes, and when he gets no push back except from the evil Democrats, he seizes power and the generals either go along or declare a national emergency. I do not like to be reactionary. I always assumed that ultimately the law and Constitution would hold. But if he gets re-elected, I just don't know anymore. I don't think he needs to be beaten, but trounced. But I am afraid I see him losing narrowly--or not at all. And that is the saddest thing I can think of.
Two lessons here. One, banks don't care if they lose money
if they can be convinced that they might make a lot of money
and two, If you want a loan, make sure it is big enough to
get their attention. And just because banks loans in the past
went belly up, doesn't mean they won't salivate over the next one.
4
At one time Trump said that our tax laws were problematic because they allowed for tax avoidance through depreciation, pass throughs, and all the other gimmicks that allowed him to pay nothing or next to nothing for years. Well, he became President with the power to demand that his Congress pass progressive legislation. Did he do that? No. He made it worse. So much for the suckers who support him. It is amazing to me that his middle class supporters actually like the fact that he games the system at their expense. It would be hysterically funny if it weren't so sad.
8
@EMiller
Well, he lowered individual tax rates across the board and eliminated many of the more egregious deductions that were previously available to the rich. I have more money in my pocket now due to his policies, as do all of the people I know (mostly middle class). He's been dealing with ankle-biting criminal progressives for the first two years of his tenure and has accomplished quite a bit regardless. So don't worry--he'll probably be much more productive from now until the end of his second term.
No matter what happens these next two years, when government finally spits out this unnatural president, his tax dodges, his overestimations of his wealth and his sneaky maneuvering with his businesses will be laid plain. His businesses will never get another loan. His children will be lucky to avoid prison and fines for going along with his nasty schemes. His days of grandiosity will be over. His bottom line will be very, very red. He's gonna find it hard to afford to live in Mar-A-Lago or pay to play another game of golf. But the Trump Presidential Library? That shouldn't be too expensive. He doesn't read any books.
4
Yes Yes Yes!
Best column ever, Gail.
"However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that even the cynical version of Donald Trump as a businessman — undisciplined self-promoter who bought and sold things just to convince himself he wasn’t a useless nothingburger living off his rich dad’s money — was maybe an overestimation."
Nailed it, or him.
I cannot get my head around where the republicans think this is going to take them. Are they so confident with their gerrymandering and voter suppression that they believe they, along with t rump, will remain in control of government? Are they so certain that their court packing has been good enough to keep their "wins" alive in the future? If they are successful in either of those we will no longer have a democratic republic. We will have a banana republic with real good suits.
When this so called president took office his party had all three branches of government, including both houses of Congress. They got absolutely nothing done except the treasury looting they call a tax cut.
I keep waiting for the voice of Rod Serling to come booming out of the sky:
"It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."
4
It's the incessant lies, the pathological lying, and Trump's penchant for lying over truth.
Trump's bragging, bellicosity, & the hyperbole of a con-artist ersatz "business man" really selling only one product--himself.
However, since Trump does not read history--or likely read anything not about him--maybe we should not be surprised that choosing a businessman for President (even a successful businessman) has not worked out well historically for our country.
Data: Surveys of historians and political scientists consistently find that the lowest ranked 20th and 21st century American presidents have been successful businessmen--notably, Harding, Hoover, Coolidge, and G.W. Bush. Harry Truman was an unsuccessful businessman but rated a successful president.
The highest rated presidents post-19th century were TR, FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower.
https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/campaign/298724-businessmen-including-donald-trump-make-bad-presidents
Why is it that businessmen do not make good presidents? One explanation is business values reflect privatist interests (money, profits, corporations, and not people). Those from the nonbusiness world are more likely to favor public interests and work in the public interest.
Compare TR's stand against corporate monopolies and corruption and his interest in nature, the outdoors, and setting aside beautiful lands as national parks for the public with Trump who took away millions of acres of national lands.
See the pattern?
5
Before the election, we KNEW from his 50 year losing business history that he was a loser. People ignored it. They are continuing to ignore it. Nothing has changed.
5
You can bet the recent returns that he would love to disclose were they not under audit, not being released because Mnuchin says so, not being released because that would serve no legislative purpose, or are just nobody's business, would show similar losses and little to no tax liability. And that is why they are not being released. The middle to low income Republicans/Conservatives who support him against their interest would drop him like the rock he crawled out from under if they could see what they show. Its better when no one knows the truth.
He was never going to disclose his returns. He simply lied to America. Again. And he has many times more since. Like his plan to build gleaming airports that would replace our "third world" airports.
5
The harder cases among Trump supporters are wont to say they don’t mind having a president who’s a liar, if he’s a winner. The bad news is that he lied to them about being a winner. The good news is that, given their chosen sources of information, they need never know.
5
The lying, the criminal obstruction of justice, the clumsy day-to-day incompetence, the crass stupidity, the casual and obvious racism, the winks at white supremacy, the obsequious deference to bloodthirsty dictators, the physical attack on thousands of children, the moral cavity where a heart and soul ought to be--none of this impresses his base; they welcome it all, these "voiceless Americans," all as part of their newly found voice. But take away the impression that he is sensationally wealthy, and they will desert him faster than a gold-digging prospective mother-in-law. Their calf must be golden or they won't worship it. And that is why he won't show his tax returns.
3
I have given up on Congress; instead, I pray each night to Our Lady of the Southern District of New York that he will be held accountable.
6
Donald Trump will be the King of the Losers if he loses 2020 elections. Till now, he was the winner of 2016 election. This is more important than all his private businesses.
2
Donald has said many times"...only I can do it."
1
The President is setting a great example. Next thing you know the
country will end up like Greece. Morally and financially bankrupt.
4
Fox is right. These losses are impressive, an impressive proof that our Potus is a highly skilled and criminal con artist. He is selling books, new business deals and a successful bid on Presidency all based on complete fabrications. He was never a legitimate business guy and yet people will pay to attend a University to learn how successful he was. He has made a handful of truthful statements in his life - mostly admissions about how he likes to fabricate - and yet people vote for him because he seems to "tell it like it is". Donnie is the great duper of our times.
4
An enjoyable jaunt, yet somehow... Sad.
2
Do you Americans have a different definition of 'winning' than the rest of the world? If so, please advise.It might explain a lot of things.
5
'Our World-famous Thousandaire' has joined my list of choice trump epithets, alongside many favorites such as 'Tangerine Gabshite Walloper' (from a New Zealand Robert Burns poetry contest) and 'The Ugly Dumpling'.
6
@VJBortolot.
....sounds like the Kiwis really gave a way with words. That's a beaut!
@VJBortolot
How about Chief Twit?
So, despite being a bumbling, incompetent businessman, he still figured out a way to be elected President. What does that say about the Americans who voted for him? “Basket of deplorables” comes to mind. Or maybe, just maybe, both of the mainstream Parties are so corrupt in every sense, that it has left rational people with no options.
1
All you can honestly say--that is, all you can be certain of--is that Honest Don reported a loss of close to 1 billion for the period in question. All you can be certain of, based on Honest Don's long, long pattern of behavior both before and after his entry into the presidency, is that whatever he said is a lie. He wanted not to pay any taxes on his profits so he exaggerated the depreciation and cut the gains in his tax return and did not have to pay any taxes for some years and reduced taxes for some. He probably did much better than his reports. Honest Don knows that only "losers" report real income.
1
Our fearless leader must have went to one too many parties hosted by the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsly. he obviously took her advice that "only little people pay taxes". So now we have the King of Crass exposed as a Big Loser, although the real loser was, actually, the people of our country. Just like the many contractors he hired, he stiffed our government.
And as to the infrastructure gambit. Our King of Orange doesn't plan on fixing our infrastructure he will sell it out from under us. And true to his Art of the Steal he will start with a bridge.
3
I had a conversation with a couple of Republicans at a wedding last week. They all agreed he was a moral midget and over his head on most issues. One fellow was in agriculture and he complained how the tariff war with China was causing him significant losses. Despite this he believed Trump will "win" in the long term. (ha! ha!) The two things they seem to like about Trump is that he did what he said he would do...apparently regardless of consequences; and that Hillary would have been far worse (with no evidence for this belief other than the general fecklessness of the Clintons.) Oh, and they all watch Fox News exclusively. So there is your challenge Democrats. These were not stupid or evil people...they like strong (actors) actions and hate the Clintons...
2
@Jemenfou
I have had similar discussions here in Scenic Brooklyn.
If nobody knows debt better than Trump, he should suggest ways all the students in the entire country can get rid of their student debts in one clean sweep. These students don't have rich daddys and mammas like Fred Trump and Mary Anne (who started as a domestic servant but then graduated to becoming a billionaire's wife because he liked tax "avoidance" schemes, one of them being gifting to his children).
4
1973: "Follow the money."
2019: "Follow the debt."
1
While not a New York resident, I never took Trump to be anything but a philandering bully, Someone who's really rich doesn't have to say they're rich. Someone who's really powerful doesn't have to say they're powerful. Someone who's really popular doesn't have to say they're popular. So the more noise makes the more I know he's practicing what Judge Judy calls 'puffery'.
2
The only time DT wins is when he declares bankruptcy and avoids his debts. Unfortunately for the rest of us he is running the country in the same manner he ran his businesses, INTO THE GROUND!
1
How do I love thee, Gail Collins? Let me count the ways. Way number one is that you inject some sanity into my teeming brain. And way number one thousand is your allusion to the "world famous thousandaire." You got under Trump's skin years ago, and millions of us are grateful. Yours is a storied career. I dread the day when I learn you have taken a well-deserved leave -- or, worse, have retired. "Frisky little thousandaire" indeed. Showboater extraordinaire if you ask me for my two cents. PT Barnum without a brain, without self-knowledge, without a sense of humor -- that is the president of the United States and you have always pegged him right. Even worse, however, are the bankers who sold their souls and our money to sustain his recklessness.
1
And yet, this "thousandaire nothingburger" is the most powerful man on earth. Hmmm. How do you explain that?
The explanation is NOT that he just got lucky - too many things had to happen to be explained away as luck. Maybe it's that he's like a DB who sees some tell in a great quarterback and can intercept him at will. Maybe Trump just pick-sixed himself into the White House by exploiting something no one else could see.
And another aspect of Trump's good instincts is that he is, chillingly, proving to be the first president since Andrew Jackson to fully realize the power of the presidency. Congress is in the process of learning that they have no power to enforce their subpoenas. Who's the loser now?
(Answer: We are.)
The only time DT wins is when he declares bankruptcy and avoids his debts. Unfortunately for the rest of us he is running the country in the same manner he ran his businesses, INTO THE GROUND!
1
I hope everyone can see through Trump's tax numbers.
To tax authorities he inflated his losses and minimized his gains. To lenders he minimized his losses and maximized his gains.
No doubt he lost enormous sums. But the scale of losses is obviously exaggerated.
His repulsive and compulsive lying is sensational. But it's done party to create fog to obscure the truth.
Yes a suitable nickname that all the Democratic candidates could agree on and use whenever referring to Trump would really get up his nose. One powerful resonating disparaging nickname would carry more weight than the 22 names he would have to dream up for his opponents. May I suggest a few? Tax dodge Donny, No Billions Donny, or just plain Dirty Donny.!
1
@matilda rose
How about "Deadbeat Donnie"?
The real kings of losers have been the American people.
Under his miserable reign, we have become an angrier, less tolerant, more fearful and short-sighted people willing to overlook, forgive and even praise non-stop lying, tax cheating, direct violations of the Constitution, rank bigotry and discrimination directed against Muslims and brown-skinned people, the caging and separation of innocent children from their parents along our Southern border, all in exchange for incompetence in government as never seen before, bogus tax cuts, false promises of a wall, an invisible health care plan, nonexistent repairs to our infrastructure, damaged relations with our allies, a ballooning deficit and unproductive round-the clock Congressional hearings and investigations.
Where is the 25th Amendment when we really need it?
2
Indeed, The Trump is the king of the losers. We, the citizens of America of this generation are the greatest losers on earth for allowing ourselves to be hoodwinked by this corrupt and immoral person to be our president for so long.
Such episodes could be read from Roman history disbelief when it was steadily declining. Are we having our own face-starring signs of our decline?
The signals are so ominous but the members of the GOP for the love of their party have chosen to turn their back to the warning signs. Unfortunately it will hit all of us like a boomerang regardless.
Cry for the beloved country
1
The author of this article has no idea what she’s talking about. The attraction of real estate as vehicles of investment is closely tied to the tax treatment of income, as well as the deductibility of both cash and non-cash charges. Astute real estate investing is driven by debt financing, which the tax code incentivizes.
For someone who has spent a lifetime merely stringing words together, it is doubtful Ms. Collins would grasp the significance of rebounding from a crash in the market while landing on your feet.
This mean-spirited diatribe is empty of substance, and rich in conjecture.
1
Oh yes, VFO, teach us all about the wonders of real estate investments! But DJT wasn’t just
a real estate investor, he was also
a businessman who failed many
times at launching successful
longterm ventures.
Now let’s dig in and call him what
he’s been since the late 80’s—
a laundromat for millions in
Russian dirty money.
My god he makes my skin crawl.
1
Trump is an addict-- to fame, flattery, the trappings of wealth, power, etc. He needs an intervention but unfortunately the GOP are his merry enablers and the Dems, a dysfunctional family, have been fractured by the chaos of our boy-emperor.
What is clear is that the only thing Trump has talent for is convincing fools (lenders and supporters) that he is a business genius all the while covering up his epic failures. Depending on how he presented this to lenders it could even be financial fraud. But then the Russians who "loaned" him $$ or otherwise facilitated loans didn't care. They got what they paid for.
Trump laughs and sleeps well as we all watch our country being destroyed in every direction. He does not care as long as HE is getting the attention on Fox News, NY Times and all the other networks. He has rode the same horse since he was 5 years old. The money is how he gets a place at this table, it is the headlines that keep him at the top of his game. Think about how many people who have been cheated, loss money, that should have been heard BEFORE the election. Why did they not speak up?
Here is where the criminal part comes in: they were afraid of him and his paid thugs that would have come after them. And so are the Republicans.
1
So our president is either the worst businessman or the biggest tax cheat in the country. Or maybe both.
2
‘Russia, if you are listening, if you can find Trumps Tax returns the American public will greatly reward you.’
1
Donald isn't the king of the losers, America is. We foolishly elected a man with no experience, ethics, morality, business acumen, nor patriotism. And he has lived up to our worst expectations with the latest gambit designed to destroy the separation of powers.
What's worse (if that's possible), he has figured out how to neuter all efforts to remove him from office. In effect, Donald has become Oligarch and America is ripe for his unadulterated looting.
At any moment, I expect one of his henchmen to arrest me for the exercise of Free Speech.
This is no longer a laughing matter.
1
Trump never has been and never will be a a successful business mogul. It is all smoke and mirrors. Here is a man who inherited huge wealth and gone bankrupt several times by following his misguided instincts in heavily leveraged real estate deals.
Trump has been engaged in business fraud all of his life. Marco Rubio called out Trump for the hypocrite that he is by citing Trump's recruitment of foreign workers over US citizens at Mar-a-Lago. Trump is famous for not even paying his workers and then telling them to sue him for their wages. Trump also stole millions from the lifetime savings of students through his fake Trump U.
Trump's business failures led him to Putin's Russian money launderers when no legitimate banks would lend him another dime. They passed billions through Trump's corrupt deals and this is how Trump became Putin's close ally.
Donald Trump, a spoiled rich boy, has nothing but contempt for the poor working stiff on the street. He is a cynic who uses racism, bigotry, and fear of immigrants to build his base. Trump is the cruelest of con men. So many want to believe that a belligerent man who appears to be successful will actually fight for them and lead the charge against the "establishment". Wrong!
The Republican leadership protects Trump as much as possible from prosecution for his numerous frauds. They desperately need his blind and devoted base as well as Russian interference in our elections to have any hope of staying in power. Sad.
2
Donald Trump sez "I lose $100 million on every deal, but make it up in volume".
Even better than thousandaire, everybody, especially everybody running for president, should start calling him "Bone Spur." A real taste of his own medicine; best of all, it's true, everybody knows about it, and he can't escape it, so it's absolutely guaranteed to get deeply under his orange skin. And as a bonus it might even help peel away a few of his most fervent supporters, less educated white men of a certain age who served in Vietnam and are not friendly toward the slackers, like Bone Spur, who evaded it, if only they were reminded of it over and over.
1
I’ll go out on a limb here, albeit a rather sturdy one.....Trump will eventually claim on Twitter and at campaign rallies that he wanted and proposed a “beautiful” 2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan but those “obstructing Democrats were too busy with the Russian Witch Hunt and trying to impeach me.” He’ll obviously then demand voters put GOP back in majority of both houses since “everyone knows” and “many people are saying “ how well that works. Fool me once...
In Jimmy Breslin's novel "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" there's a mobster who's so incompetent that his relatives say he couldn't run a gas station at a profit if he stole the cars. Back then I never guessed he'd be president.
Yes, let's talk about Loser Trump. He has bankrupted the U.S.'s values and reputation. For 2+ years under his unchecked autocratic leadership -- his impotence -- given his general inaction in addressing important policy needs, he has also bankrupted the sanctity and soul of this fair nation.
The Times writes here of House Democrats threatening to "jail officials, garnish their wages, and impeach the president."
It's TIME to restore American eminence -- Normalcy. It's TIME to dethrone Cancer Trump. Impeach.
1
Gail Collins can be funny. All kinds of funny — dry, witty, standup, broad, absurd, nasty, just about any kind of funny you can think of, sometimes all of them at the same time, sometimes even awesomely so.
On most days, unfortunately, when it comes to the death of the American republic there’s really not much left to laugh about.
Anyone who actually followed Trump's career through his tabloid era, and before his reality TV program, would have told you that Trump was a liar. Actually, most of us did. We might have even mentioned that being part of the NYC real estate game was not a recommendation for moral probity or a strong concern for the rule of law.
We already knew he was the type who lost other people's money freely to gild - literally - his own nest.
That was before he was a candidate, self promoting himself into his biggest con job. That was before he won an election rigged by a heady coalition of determined ignorance and propaganda.
It has served the GOP well to have their naked emperor. The difficulty to project is whether the damage from their hijinks will be permanent. My magic 8 ball says Signs Point to Yes.
There is nothing said or written about Donald Trump that hasn't been said or written a dozen times.
Reading the latest about him is like having to play Candland for the 900th time with your 4 yr old.
The one word that Trump fears worst of all is not, in his eyes, even remotely possible. He would rather see his hair fall out than to be called --- a LOSER.
And this word contains for all of us a world of meanings that he is incapable of comprehending.
1
"The Art of the Con". How a net debtor fooled the world and lived like a king. Read it. You can do it too!
He inherited his money from Daddy Trump. He never had to work an honest day for honest pay. So, he doesnt know the true value of $. How can you expect him to be fiscally responsible? Its impossible! So, thats how he squandered millions. It wasnt his to begin with. He was playing the game of Monopoly the real life version. With borrowed $.He bought Park Ave. properties with Baltic Ave. $. If you dont have it,dont spend it.I think he is a joke.
'Donald Trump — an undisciplined self-promoter who bought and sold things just to convince himself he wasn’t a useless nothingburger living off his rich dad’s money'
thank you, gail. this is priceless.
Let me add my outrage as another American who — stupidly — pays every cent of my taxes owed. At some point, many of us are going to stop being played and start cheating like the rich people. The problem is that the decimated IRS still has its sights trained squarely on us, while the wealthy get off scot-free.
Even Trump's grammar is wrong...."Nobody knows debt better than me." Should be "Nobody knows debt better than I". ("do"). For Trump it is always "OPM".... "other people's money." I recently had 2 repairmen at my house. They were originally New Yorkers. They said they hated Trump...that he "stiffed" every person who ever did any work for him in NY. Now he is "stiffing" our entire country. He is indeed the "Grifter in Chief."
Trump racked up over a billion in debt after getting rich off his Dad. Then, walked away from this debt declaring bankruptcy and somehow got to deduct someone else's losses on his taxes. What a huge scammer he is. Far greater than Madoff.
Yow.
In Trump-Universe, "The Apprentice" was
"The Biggest Loser" all along.
1
Trump's 'brand' is as empty as he is. These revelations are the calling card of the con-man, grifter and scam artist that he so obviously is.
His utter contempt for the office he holds is startling - even now after more than 2 years of this rolling disaster.
1
"Donald Trump, King of the Losers"
Ms. Collins, you really think so. Who is POTUS? Him or you? What does this say about the system that elected him? And might do so again?
So who are the real losers here?
Just as an aside, think of all the op-ed material he has offered since the campaign.
1
Instead of thousandaire, I prefer two-bit fraud.
I like “our financially embattled thousandaire” but prefer "our Made-in-Russian President". So many options...how's a person supposed to choose?
"Loser"-- the preferred word of the bully. In Trump's case, it takes one to know one.
1
Here is what Trump does for sport, according to earlier Times reporting:
"Mr. Trump assembled his casino empire by borrowing money at such high interest rates — after telling regulators he would not — that the businesses had almost no chance to succeed.
His casino companies made four trips to bankruptcy court, each time persuading bondholders to accept less money rather than be wiped out. But the companies repeatedly added more expensive debt and returned to the court for protection from lenders."
He then took the casinos public to raise more money, but ultimately lost $1.5 billion of stock and bond-holders money while other casinos thrived.
All the while he pulled millions of dollars from the casino businesses for himself in ways that may have been illegal.
In his coup de gras, he drove a number of contractors out of business when he did not pay them.
Among the thousands of people involved, he was the only one who walked away with anything in his pockets.
In Trump's own words, it was all for sport.
To those who dismiss Trump's business failures as the normal course of affairs for business people, can you see the difference between making a good faith attempt to start and operate a business, and recklessly, incompetently, and illegally gaming the system for personal profit with no regard for the harm it does to others?
3
Trump's not a great deal-maker. He's a great deal-maker because he survived several bankruptcies using his rich dad's money. I like presidents who didn't go bankrupt .
3
The anti-tax propaganda of the last half-century or so has achieved its goal: otherwise sane and sensible people believe that tax cuts will make everybody better off. I've heard people claim that tax cuts for business will mean more jobs and/or lower prices and/or higher wages. That a sane and sensible business person will prefer to add tax cuts to their profit margin doesn't seem to occur to the anti-tax people enthusiasts.
On nthe other hand, my (very good) pension plan depends on business profits. So I can't claim clean hands in this mess.
In addition to my full-time job teaching music at a university I am self-employed as a performer and private teacher. I have to show a profit in one of every five years or else I lose my self-employed business: it's considered a hobby. Donald has a very expensive hobby.
1
Two things.
1. When trump would buy shares in a company and let slip he might be interested in buying same company, did the FTC ever get involved? This appears to be stock price manipulation.
2. Reading the NYT article I noticed one of trump's solutions to his financial problems was to buy more financial problems. I wonder if dad ever told him "No!"
1
Gail - you may recall the time back in the '80's when Trump had to appear before a bankruptcy judge to beg for more money in order to continue to fund the costs of his yacht. Truly a heartbreaking moment!
3
The "sport" of "showing losses for tax purposes" might also be called tax fraud. Not saying he committed tax fraud but as Bill O'Reilly might put it "The question has to be asked".
5
“Otherwise the money would get wasted on pork-barrel projects and endless consulting contracts that turned into extremely expensive plans to nowhere.”
Makes me wonder how he’s overlooked this opportunity to line his and his cronies’ pockets!
3
@Alisan Peters - Are we sure that he has?
@Alisan Peters
What makes you think that was overlooked?
Thousandaire? That's funny...As with most funny things it's based on observations.
Trump shares his "no Federal taxes paid" status with dozens of major companies, such as Amazon, Netflix, Delta, Chevron, General Motors.....the list goes on. Many of them even got refunds.
Makes me exceedingly angry also..and I definitely vote.
7
Trump's sport is not paying taxes. Republicans' sport is spitting on the Constitution, their oaths of office, democracy and the American people. They are all at the top of their game.
Meanwhile Democrats wince and timidly protest.
People, we are in the fight of our lifetime. America will only survive if Americans care enough to stand up to Republicans and Trump. Let Democrats know they need to act and that we have their backs.
Do it for America and do it for your children's sake.
16
And yet this "King of the Losers" won the prized American presidency in 2016 and stands a real chance of doing so again in 2020.
That's something richer, smarter, and people less in debt have tried and failed miserably to do. Trump has expertly played his role, avatar-like, in the age of spectacle, decadence, and instantly communicable mass media and has been rewarded accordingly.
Good or bad, he's a truly historical figure who will be remembered for a long time to come and perhaps this makes him a winner in the most important sense: he'll still be talked about when most of us have long since been forgotten.
Even if he doesn't win in 2020, I think he'll be satisfied with what he's accomplished so far.
2
@LR
Similar to Cagulia and Nero? (Excuse the spelling if it's wrong spell check didn't work).
@LR
"...he'll still be talked about when most of us have long since been forgotten."
Yes: he'll be talked about--as the slimy carnival barker who seduced the gullible, angry mass of Americans who voted for him, despite knowing exactly how awful he was. He'll be known as the horrible person who people voted because he was horrible. So, not "good or bad"--bad. Very bad.
1
@LR - He's a bitter, insecure excuse for a man who has to pay for sex and companionship. He doesn't seem satisfied.
I'd rather be forgotten than remembered as one of the most odious beings to ever walk the earth which is how Trump will be remembered.
1
Everyone made a fortune in real estate in the 80’s. Plain fact. You didn’t need to know anything or have any special skill. The money flowing into Coop conversions alone in NYC was absolutely insane. Does that mean that developers didn’t get overextended eventually in the early 90s? No. But I don’t see how you could lose money in most of that decade.
2
There's no arguing that the tax code needs to be rewritten and tax code loopholes greatly limited to those individuals who earn under $XX,XXX and small businesses (including contractor labor expenditures) who show net gains/losses.
If this is argument is solely based on politics, don't forget DJT was a (D) before he was a (R).
6:22A CDT
5/9/19
2
@Coffee Bean
Like a chameleon charges color?
Kafka's Gregor Samsa woke up one morning to find he was a cockroach. I (we?) woke up on November 8, 2017 to find myself in the middle of a huge, long reality show. The new president would constantly do outrageous things that any scriptwriter would be ashamed to offer to a studio; almost every night, like clockwork, a new "news alert" drops in the middle of whatever cable "news/commentary" show one is watching; there's a cast of characters so long and colorful that Proust would be envious; and the Russians actually DO get a Manchurian candidate elected. And with each turn, everyone watching this is faced with the potential "end of the world," "end of democracy," "end of America." The story is so fantastic, so distant from any previous reality, one almost expects there to come a time when all the key players will come out on stage and take their bows for their over-the-top performances. And then things would return to normal. If only.
4
Trump should learn the value of conservative investing!
He would be richer today if he had bought CDs with Daddy's gifts, loans, and bequests.
1
Gail, thanks for enlightening me that Donald Trump and I do have something in common after all. We are both thousandaires.
4
@A Rock In My Shoe
That's truly funny I believe many are in that club.
Let's stop talking about DJT. Yes, he is worse than we could have imagined. (although anyone in NYC could've told us so) But the real culprit is Mitch McConnell. He is a man without a moral compass who does not care about this country. He has no consistent set of beliefs. He has no ideas. I'm not sure he enables DJT as much as DJT enables him. So please Gail et al., let's get Mitch and his undemocratic behavior under the microscope. Every day.
11
HAH! Anyone who lived in the New York Metro area has always known this man for a fraud, a con and a not very amusing prince of the tabloids.
Obviously an adherent to the Leona Helmsley quote about little people and taxes, this man is a career grifter who played three card Monte with the IRS, his lenders,suppliers and for the last 2 years with the American public.
He was able to live a glitzy lifestyle ,funded by his businesses, since none of his companies were publicly held, no stockholders to report to, like many "family" or independents, the business was a personal piggy bank to draw funds from.I've worked for men like this who never paid for a car, a vacation or a meal, letting the 'company' pay for it.
Of all those losses, the most curious has to be the casinos.Whenever did anyone hear of a casino losing money or going bankrupt.( as an aside, former Gov. Christie let him off the hook easily at the time) As far as the casino losses go, most likely the money just disappeared...like by someone with sticky fingers and creative bookkeeping.
10
I am almost 84 years old and federal taxes have always been and continue to be my largest annual expense. Apparently Trump was such a lousy businessman that he could avoid paying taxes for a large majority of the time. It is a total mystery to me why anybody would support such a person for what is probably the top job on the planet.
6
Once again, this really isn’t a surprise. We now know more details, but the general miasma of business failure and shifting borrowed money was always there. Trump’s empire has always been a bunch of smoke.
1
By George, I've got the solution to the infrastructure problem. We'll make Mexico pay for our new roads and bridges!
3
Oh, Gail, I don't know what I would do without you. Thank you for shining a little humor on these otherwise dark days.
4
Trump’s habit of treating actions as “sport” will undoubtedly be his legacy, all built on quicksand.
1
DJT is disturbing enough without having to look behind the shambles of his financial curtain. What's more disturbing is how in thrall the Republican party is to an out and out fraudster. They know, or should know by now, that no good can come from their willful blindness. Voters will remember who was at the helm, and who sat by approvingly, when the ship of state crashes against the rocks.
3
@Michael Gilbert Trump's lack of ethics or morality fits perfectly with the Party of Fox.
The GOP has always been in the business of carrying water for the wealthy.
The Donald gives them great cover as they continue to steal and hoard.
The classic con: make a ruckus over there while taking the money from over here.
@Michael Gilbert
Unfortunately many voters have short memories and there are many that believe what Mr Trump puts out.
I have been vexed for a couple of years now as to why people so admire Donald Trump. I think I found a big clue. Donald Trump plays the 'victim' very well. His most zealous followers identify with that. Their lives are dependent on being perceived as victims. Some of them really are victims, but most use the idea of victimization as a shield against actual responsibility. Donald Trump has done this all his life. He's a loser that's for sure. But he shrouds this reality in a web of deceit making it look like it was someone else is to blame. It was the 'other'. Millions of my fellow Americans live their lives this way, day in and day out. This is why Donald is their champion. Donald Trump is the idol of false victimization.
6
As a New Yorker I can only say, “who knew there were so many Rubes out there”. I thought people were smarter.
Our schools are failing to tell the story of how democracy works. His life is the modern version of the traveling snake oil salesman.
Look at all the wonderful stuff I have! He stole or was given it all and even then he botched it.
But look at that life.....
I fear for my children.
Unfortunately, the law really did (and mostly still does) permit real estate developers to claim fake losses to avoid taxes. And bankers aren't usually fools, or taken in by fraud, for very long.
So he must have been doing something, somewhere, that actually made a large positive cash flow, and maybe even a profit. People who rent or sell jet airplanes demand cash.
Everywhere we look we find Trump as a con man. It's well known that if you cannot spot the con man then the con is on you, which did apply to 62,000,000 Americans as of November 2016. Let's hope that the number is below 60 million now and dropping.
4
What is the GOP any more than a party designed to hold power and take money? What ideas are actually part of the party? The GOP did, indeed, find it's Savior and Christ in Donald Trump.
Trump is, was, and always has been a con. Unfortunately, he conned himself into believing he could be a marginally competent President. In his own mind Washington and Lincoln were losers compared to him. At some point, though, the rubber meets the road. When that has happened in Trump’s life, he quickly left the restaurant, leaving others to pay the bill. Sometimes it was wealthy Saudi businessmen (as with the Plaza Hotel), or other times it was banks which backed him, or in Atlantic City, it was state and local government. Now it it is the American people and the Federal Government.
Destructurilization is the only act the master builder is capable of.
I am about to cross Sweden in a state of the art bus on highways that have near perfect surfaces.
Never in my America as I can easily confirm after trying to get from Point A (Logan) to Point B (in any direction) a few days from now.
Nothing more to say.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
2
His next ghost written autobiography could well be titled “Every Opportunity Squandered”. When you think about what he could have been, could have accomplished, its staggering to conclude he was self destructive at virtually every opportunity.
Solving this should not be put in the American people in 2020. Congress should now ....or resign in mass as they are making a joke out of the oath of office taken to protect and defend the constitution of this country.
And for now those being told they can’t testify need to follow trump’s example of ignoring all requests and do it anyway!
One can imagine him crowing out loud to his staff and family about how others pay for his lifestyle (mistakes), including taxpayers.
Trump is the "Reverse Midas" Everything he touches turns to lead. Everyone near him is negatively affected and their careers destroyed.
Trump has been blowing some smoke about his “losses”. Let me clear that up. He is correct when he says that real estate investors like himself can run huge artificial tax losses for years while actually making money. So can corporations. That is due to special Easter-egg-like gifts that Congress has hidden throughout the tax laws. But it is also possible for real estate investors to make bad investments and actually lose real money, often more than they invested, due to borrowed money. And it is possible for real estate investors to lose money for tax purposes AND for real. It’s clear from the Times work that Trump is the latter: a Two Time Loser.
2
Just seeing his taxes is probably not good enough, because unless you also see his company books and bank accounts you don't really know if he is cheating or not. Am I wrong about that? And then there is the question of where he got all that cash during the period when he suddenly switched to self-financing his deals... can we know where that came from just by seeing his taxes? I doubt it. Then there is the problem of LLCs which do not have to list their real owners.
The United States has become the world's biggest repository of laundered money from global dictators, thanks to the LLC and other real estate laws. I feel confident Trump took part in laundering Russian money... but can it be proved?
3
Tax returns are not enough. There will probably show single line losses from a lot of acronymed passthru entities like LLPs which were popular in real estate back then. But the returns are a good overview. Financial information he filed with banks should be much more informative. Besides finding out what he did file,we may also see some inaccuracies that could constitute prima facie evidence of fraud.
Playing to your base works for all bases.
1
add some glitter to the road repair asphalt! Then it will gleam. Trump will like that.
1
Dear President Trump; So, you have finally admitted publicly that your organization made big use of Tax Loss Carryforwards, just like many large corporations do, entirely consistent with U.S. tax laws. OK, Mr. President, if you are really concerned with making the U.S. tax system more fair, why don't you start with proposing to reform that. By the way, one of the goals of the U.S. establishing a "progressive" tax system was to improve the fairness of the system an help assure that taxes payments are raised fairly from a relatively broad section of taxpayers. Oh! You were not aware of that, Mr. President. I suggest you do a little more quality reading about the economy and, while you are at that--perhaps it would be a good idea to actually read briefing papers prepared by experts in various areas of specialty. Isn't it fair for the American nation to expect that ?
2
I always thought the rich were different than me. They might have had that one great idea for making money here or that inheritance from a rich uncle there. But that was the only difference I saw. I never dreamed they didn't pay any taxes like I was doing, albeit a much larger chunk of money.
While I may have hoped for that one great idea or rich uncle to come along one day, I've been comfortable and my family has been comfortable. So I have to admit I didn't notice climate change creeping up on us, the inexorable rise of the income gap between rich and poor, nor the deficiencies in our infrastructure reaching critical levels until fairly recently.
This expose' on Trump shows us all how hollow our democracy has gotten over the past few decades. He's right that only suckers pay taxes. Our system has been hacked to the point where it barely functions for most of us. And if it doesn't function in the United States, it isn't likely to function very well anywhere.
The system itself needs a complete overhaul. Those lawmakers responsible for the current state of affairs need to be fired. And we need to educate our kids so that they never get fooled again.
4
So it turns out, surprise, that The Art of the Deal is actually the art of the con. Business associates, clients, friends, lawyers, the public--they've all been conned royally. Trouble is, Americans have a soft spot for their con men--the more outrageous the better. He could go to jail and still get reelected.
3
Thanks to the NYT for the thorough investigation. It merely confirms what we have known all along about Trump. He is liar, cheat, fraud and blowhard with absolutely zero substance. Unfortunately, he retains the unwavering support of 35% of the country, who probably share many or all of these traits, so they will not be swayed by the latest mountain of evidence. I doubt Trump will lose in 2020, but on the off chance he does, I agree with Speaker Pelosi that he will refuse to leave office.
1
Donald Trump's father did not seem to be a "nice guy." I don't understand what motivated him to continually bail Donald out of financial ruin created by DJT's ineptness, lack of ability to sustain an effort and general disdain for doing things the right way. By all accounts, Daddy Trump was a good business man. Why would he continue to fund his son's less than stellar performance?
Come on people, give this man some credit - he is without a doubt one of the most successful grifters in world history! He came very, very close to fooling all of the people all of the time - and his act is not even close to being over.
5
Why don’t the proud citizens of this country have the good sense to see this situation clearly? What is the great gaping hole in their self-esteem that can only be filled by adoration of a liar and a cheat? How are their lives made complete by a person who would rob them blind and then laugh at them?
1
Our 'thousandaire' President Don the Builder was all giddy about spending money we don't have on a trillion dollar roads and river plan. Then Mitch the Banker announced it was all DOA anyway. So Donald sat in his bunker and did his best to silence the truth from getting out.
Sadly Republicans in Congress, who only read the Barr summary stay firmly in his support.
"Constitutional Crisis"......we've got problems larger than that.
1
Trump won, he's the president. That's more than the Democrats can say.
2
@OrangeFruitSlice So did Hitler. That’s your argument?
Be very careful Gail. You will be one of the first to be sent to the
GULAG when Trump assumes total dictatorial power. And don'y say it can't happen in our "democracy"!
1
When I read Trump's response to the NY Times piece about the grand negotiator's strategy, losses were for tax strategy, I laughed, at first, then cringed when reality set in-his followers will believe that nonsense.
No one buys an airline that was losing money then having the lenders take all of it then losing that money for tax purposes.
No one builds or buys a hotel-casino in which revenue cannot service the debt interest, then lose the property to the foolish lenders and investors, for tax purposes.
What the piece did not mention, possibly as it may not have fit, was the grifter from Queens, issued junk bonds, an item he promised New Jersey regulators he would not do, for another failed Atlantic City adventure. And lost it also, I suppose for tax purposes.
Yup. Fantastic business mogul he is. He is more successful as a grifter and con artist than at business and attempting to be "presidential".
2
One common characteristic of Trump supporters is their delight when Donald messes with political business as usual. They may correctly assume that they can survive in America only by the gifts from rich employers and politicians. They identify with the selfish, crude, superficial, heartless man. The nightmare men. The Scott Walkers, John Boltons, the Donald. The most heartless rulers. They don't see themselves as the borrowers they are, enslaved by lenders.
3
"the donald" has been seen as a bad joke by most New Yorkers since the 1970s. It's a shame that "middle america" bought his reality TV persona, and his ghost-written ART OF THE DEAL "business bible" as anything more than a sham, and STILL think he's a good leader(sic).
Republicans have to stand up to this would be demagogue. They are taking us down a very short, very dangerous road to disaster.
"It's the end of the world as we know it", REM
Please, Gail, don’t talk about crazy and Trump. His tiny hands hold the nuclear football.
Losing money so you don’t have to pay taxes as a business strategy is not a strategy for success.
Back in the 1990’s when Forbes Magazine decided to delist Trump from its list of the wealthiest Americans it analyzed Trump’s financial acumen. Basically his cash flow was being drained by the Taj Mahal Casino and other toy businesses. These were not paper losses.
3
Most of Trump's voters will not care because they don't have time to read real newspapers or do research. They hear Fox News for a few minutes throughout the day and they create an opinion. They live in vacuums that insulate them from truth and reality at the government level. They only know the truth that they are suffering and they want someone to blame. Trump finds a lot of scapegoats. He is their guy.
3
In this hectic-paced world, you can either be a doer or a talker. Anyone who can shoot off 30, 40, 50 or above tweets as his day's work (after 4-5 hours of his executive time), well, you can tell his preference and preoccupation.
As to the good side of Trump, that's like a hot air balloon that starts deflating the moment its mouth is tied tight. The dominant bad side of Trump starts taking over. That's the reality of the man.
1
Yeah it makes me feel great to know that his tax plan cost us several extra thousands of dollars in higher taxes (shown by the % of our income paid in federal taxes) while he managed to make his taxes even less by not cutting out the loopholes that help him. Combined with smaller withholding (which was supposed to make us feel better by giving us an "extra" $100 a month until April 15), it really was a sucker punch. But it wasn't a surprise. It was exactly what I expected from the con artist in chief.
2
My wife, after reading that Donald Trump lost over $1 billion in a few years, noted how hypocritical it was that a few years after losing most of that money, Trump hosted the TV show “The Apprentice.” He posed as a skillful tycoon on the show, which was a modest success for a few years.
At that same time, there was another reality-TV show which ran 17 years, had versions in other countries and was more successful than Trump’s. The name of the show, which involved a weight-loss competition, was “The Biggest Loser.”
Given the revelations by The New York Times about Donald Trump’s ineptitude in business, my wife suggested that, honoring Trump’s love of pinning nicknames on others, we all should begin calling him “The Biggest Loser.”
"Only the little people pay taxes." Hey, don't forget what happened to Leona Helmsley.
5
Trump does not know how to govern. If he did we might very well been on the way to rebuilding our aging infrastructure and finding solutions to our rising healthcare costs and immigration problems.
Instead of a leader we have a golfer, an addicted TV watcher, a bully, a rally lover and a con artist. Trump has no interest in making America great again. His interest is self-interest to enrich himself.
4
"On behalf of the millions of Americans who filed their I.R.S. returns last month, I want to say that it is always a treat to hear our president explain how only suckers pay taxes."
Never were words of yours truer, Gail Collins! When you add up all of Trump's bon mots on the subject of money and taxes, he can be exceedingly candid.
In so many ways, and words, this man showed us who he was, which is chilling.
Joking about tax fraud may get laughs at a rally, but if you elect a cheater, for the love of God, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
The American people are going to have to make good on Trump's debts accumulated in the presidency. His major tax heist, his military buildup, his cronyism will cost us big time.
And the tab will come to us, one way or another, because this much we know: a man who cheats on his taxes will cheat on just about anything.
6
The lenders. That's whom I worry about. Because as the bankers in the US managed to overcome their short term greed and saw trump for the fake he is, they stopped lending him money. So who continued to finance him?
Come on, all you Republican Patriots, who is your president indebted to?
1
Moral and ethical bankruptcy must make declaring business bankruptcy seem second nature.
The Donald spends so much energy trying to diminish and discredit his critics and anyone he considers his enemy, real or imagined. He spends any remaining energy creating and burnishing his own fraudulent mythology of exceptional skills as the greatest and most successful businessman in history. The revelation that Donald Trump got bigly shortchanged in the business acumen department is nothing short of delicious just desserts for this "I know you are but what am I" supremely arrogant con man. One of Trump's biggest Achilles heels is the truth about his lack of business sense and the revelation as one of the worst businessmen in history. If he is not going to be impeached or forcibly removed from office anytime soon, the next best alternative is to torment and taunt him, showing the world that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. Lying about and preventing the release of his college grades, tax returns and now the Mueller report are not the actions of an honest, smart and hardworking man with a proud past. Donald Trump is indeed the King of the Losers.
1
I am not Trump fan, but this is still a confusing story to me. How is it possible to lose a billion dollars and still own so much as a pair of tennis shoes? Trump inherited money, but not that much money. First, Bezos/Amazon lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1990's also (https://qz.com/1196256/it-took-amazon-amzn-14-years-to-make-as-much-net-profit-as-it-did-in-the-fourth-quarter-of-2017/). If this is spending for purposes of creating a successful business, I am not sure this is proof of anything unless the business ultimately fails. Some of Trump's did -- he had four bankruptcies. Not all of them did. Second, I am unclear about how much of these losses were on paper -- depreciation, changes in valuation -- and how much of it represented money he was actually supposed to pay someone. If they are paper losses, at some point he should have earned money on these investments, but who knows?
More to this story, I'm sure.
Whatever the reality, Trump's bragging about being too smart to pay taxes and his generous offer to spend the money of the suckers who supported him - and their children's and grand children's - is obnoxious.
Sadly, the one business Trump was unequivocally good at was being Trump -- marketing himself on TV and licensing his name and ultimately marketing himself as a politician. He succeeds in part because he is a pathological liar who appears entirely comfortable inflating his own accomplishments and disparaging others.
2
Confidence tricks and success requires a persuasive seller, or at least a marginal one with gold plated stage props. The confidence game cannot be played if the “marks” are privy to the mechanics of the scam.
Deutsche Bank records release stymied by Trump.inc. Mueller report and Tax returns release stymied by Donnie T. How much imagination is necessary to validate the Trump.inc business empire is a moldy, debt laden Potemkin Village?
The gaslighting continues and his Flying Monkeys are out in force to spin the biggest losers successes. The first Administration where cabinet appointments are vetted against a Flying Monkey spectrum of allegiance and adherence.
I really wonder in 2020 if the nation will pull together to end this self inflicted tragedy.
I fear some dopey so called "Green Party" candidate (again propped up with Republican dark money and Russian social media propaganda) will do it's little dark magic like 2000 and 2016 and we will be well on our way to doom.
We really need to put our thinking caps on this round. It truly may be our last chance.
2
Hi Gail. I remember when the occupant called you a mean name. Of course, you rightly laughed it off back then, knowing the occupant was a big talker with nothing to show for it. And now we learn he was an even bigger talker with even less to show for it.
Now that it's even more abundantly clear that the occupant is one of the greatest con men of all time (something we New Yorkers always knew to be true), Congress needs to make sure they don't give him any money to do anything at least until November 2020. Sure, that will disadvantage many necessary programs and many, if not most of we taxpayers, but at least the occupant won't have a chance to "redirect" our tax dollars to himself, his family, his properties or his future properties.
Just think of all those workers/contractors he stiffed or forced to litigate needlessly just to get paid less or nothing, for the work they did for the occupant. The lesson is plain, and is one from which we all should learn - if you come within a few feet of the occupant, grab your wallets and hide from The BIGGEST LOSER!
1
Trump has always been a grifter. "The Art of the Deal" should have been titled "The Art of the Steal." To him, avoiding taxes is "sport;" lying about your net worth to get bank loans routine; stiffing lawyers, contractors and business partners just being smart. Why the IRS, New York City, Atlantic Ciy, Deutschebank and others let him get away with it for so long baffles me. But Trump has weaknesses: he's not very bright, he's a narcissist and he can be bought. Putin, Kim, Xi have all taken advantage of these traits and will continue to do so as long as he remains in the White House.
2
The Times' article yesterday about his back taxes shows that Trump truly is "biggest" and "best" at one thing...losing money. And I find it mind-boggling that America's biggest loser was able to get himself elected president.
1
.
Thing is, both parties have come to represent their respective classes of losers. Alienated older white men for Republicans, the Dependency Class for Democrats.
Ergo, Independents are now the largest group in the nation.
And yet severely underrepresented. Moderate thought basically absent in the political discourse, which veers from socialism to fascism, basically skipping everything in between.
1
This column should be required reading for anyone who comes to work for the Trump White House. True, funny, sad , infuriating.
Now we're getting to the central core of the great Trump and Republican deception. Taxes. Or rather, no taxes for millionaires and up. Deceiving honest taxpayers is how they rose to positions of power, it's how they were able to hijack the system into allowing them to pay no taxes, even at the cost of the trillions in debt they've always falsely railed against. It's no wonder they support a con man, because he's the perfect man for their dirty job. He was born to it, and he's lived it all his life. But watch them scatter if Trump is ever actually held accountable. Now, more than ever, we need to fix the big money in politics and tax loopholes for the rich. And it starts with fixing Trump. We need to see those tax returns.
558
@Brannon Perkison "deceiving taxpayers" is way, way too charitable toward millions of irresponsible fools who voted for him.
The rest of us saw him as deceitful. Blame those who didn't before you place blame on the snake oil salesman. Stop avoiding holding them accountable. the taxpayers may have been honest, but they were also blind.
THEN we can go after the deceiver, otherwise we'll just end up with the same mess for another 4 years and possibly lose our nation.
17
@Brannon Perkison I agree with your points, except one: you can't "fix" T-rump. A sociopath and liar and deeply flawed con man cannot be "fixed". He has shown us what he is - now is the time to accept that the White House occupant is a loser, as are we all with his greedy paws on everything.
38
@Brannon Perkison
Trumpty Dumpty is fit to be tied,
When his taxes reveal how much he has lied.🤥
He’ll snarl & rage - and attack wildly,
Any and all who would dare disagree.
16
My takeaway from the news of Trump's losses is that they were the result of accounting trickery designed to reduce his taxes. Since the tax records were supposed to be confidential, he could tell the IRS he had no net income while bragging to the public what a successful businessman he was. And that's why he's desperate to keep outsiders from looking at his more recent records.
4
The King of Debt championed a tax bill that is borrowing money - huge amounts of it - and will continue to borrow more and more until the Democrats fix it. It’s easy to say that he is borrowing from our children, who will definitely take a hit when the Democrats raise taxes to pay the bills that the Republicans have charged on our national credit card. That is the same as it ever was. But it will hit home earlier than that, when the Republicans try to raid Social Security, cut Medicare, Medicaid and gut the ACA to perpetuate their wealth transfer to the already-wealthy.
So as we talk about the Trump continuation of the good economic news of the Obama recovery, let’s keep our eye on the one indicator that is not continuing to trend in a positive direction - the deficit. Because those bills will come due. There will not be a bankruptcy to wipe the slate clean and transfer the losses to somebody else. And nobody’s daddy will come to the rescue.
6
@Mike Iker Do tell us what the Dems have EVER fixed. And if Obama started this fabulous recovery, why do the Dim candidates say it doesn't help the middle class. You can't have it both ways.
@Jackson Once upon a time the Democrats were accused of "tax and spend". Yet Bill Clinton had success with the deficit.
Bush had tax cuts and paid for wars on credit, and drove up the deficit. Little was said.
Obama has his downs with the deficit and was loudly accused of running up the deficit and he will ruin the finances of the country.
Then, here comes the King Of Bankruptcy. A tax cut, sort of, and an exploding deficit due to a decrease in tax revenue due to decreased payments due to the tax cut scam, the same scam Reagan used.
And our magical tax cut? Well, we pay the tariffs, not the affected countries, and, have you bought gasoline or diesel and see the increases attributed in part to, here it comes, embargoes.
Yup. What a success story Trump, the grifter, is.
1
Gail—If the Government takes 50% of my income, how much of the remaining 50% did the Government lose?
1
Curiously the cost of the imaginary two trillion dollar infrastructure plan nearly matches to the dollar the revenue that would have paid for the project had Trump and the Republicans not handed huge tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations disguised as "tax reform".
And the "good government" Democrats seem more than willing to go along and give Trump more re-election ammunition by giving him a talking point while burdening the country with 2 trillion more of debt.
1
I remember sitting at my desk in the early 90's commenting to a co-worker "Hey, I'm worth more than Donald Trump!" My assumption, at the time, was that The Donald's net worth was negative. Now we see that it very well could have been just that.
So what funding source brought him back? Check out Michael Hirsch's December 21, 2018 article in Foreign Policy. Trump has been financed by Russian oligarchs who used him as a way to launder the funds they were looting from the former Soviet Union.
In a very strict sense, there didn't have to be any cabal between Putin and Trump regarding the election. They were in business together and worked in each other's interest.
With the number of money laundering and financial fraud experts on Team Mueller, I have to believe that much of this was fully documented by them. And it certainly explains why Trump is ignoring subpoenas across the board to prevent anyone from getting their hands Mueller's working papers.
Time for a Pentagon Papers scale leak.
19
@Scott Brown Absolutely!
1
Trump says something to the effect that as a real estate broker I made a profit but on me tax forms I declared losses...because I could. Stand up guy. Then he says when he gets elected he'll change those tax laws because they're wrong. He hasn't. Stand up guy, he is.
5
And his 90% approval ratings among Republicans will remain. This is the mystery of our era, that this many of our citizens love Trump regardless of any actual facts about him, all of which would be disastrous for anyone else. Trump has shown us what America in the 21st Century is made of.
1539
@Dagwood: No mystery at all. He hates the same people they do. (He's also contemptuous of anyone who pays their taxes but his base will choose to overlook that...)
176
@Dagwood
I’d like to see what % of registered Republicans have left the party. We here if many defections but knowing how many would put that 90% of Republicans in perspective. The party is shrinking.
94
@Dagwood
maybe the polls are being hacked by Russians and Saudi's just like they hacked out election - maybe they aren't accurate. maybe we are all being duped by the Russians and fake polls to make us think Trump still has Republican support. maybe that's the real hoax.
52
DJT is using the same formula to ruin the U.S. economy. Reckless spending and exorbitant debt. Exactly what he said he would do. R's who formally billed themselves as deficit hawks are meekly going right along.
1576
@Basic:
And exactly one reason why I am afraid.
41
@Basic
This is what the Democrats should be using as a weapon against every Republican running for re-election.
51
@Basic
and they'll blame it all on the democrats.
46
Seems as though the $2 trillion for infrastructure improvements won't be going anywhere. It's too expensive. But tax cuts for the wealthy of about the same magnitude? Well, now you're talking! Heck, that's passed and done. The infrastructure would benefit the whole. But that's pretty weak tea compared to helping the wealthy.
24
Now how about finding out how Jared-dearest has exactly 'refinanced' his highly indebted 666 Fifth Avenue building. Who was the Mephisto in the that game?
19
Trump was a great real estate mogul. He lost $200,000,000 on every deal but he made up for it in volume.
26
@Ronald Aaronson
Well, all that volume is now around his belly, while the volume of his little grey cells has been taken over by a toupee.
1
@Ronald Aaronson Yup. Economy of scale.
1
The Trump method of walking away from his financial obligations is going to eventually hurt all of us. This ‘great’ economy where the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are running faster and faster to stay in place, will have to pay the piper some day. Instead of paying down the national debt-which is somehow not a problem for the GOP anymore- , we allow the rich to keep more of their money and pass it down to their kids while most of us cannot look our kids in the eyes and say they will live a better life than we did. We are living in a grand Ponzi scheme. Remember that Bret Stephens when the economy finally crashes.
95
You are too right but “tax cuts” sounds so yummy even to people who don’t earn enough to pay taxes.
trump the self proclaimed King of Debt is only good at two thing: losing other people’s money, and stiffing the little contractors who he hires by repeatedly declaring bankruptcy. That’s the “art” of his deal. More like the Art Of Losing.
110
No one really likes to pay their taxes, even when they realize that it is their obligation. But now that we know our grifter in chief pays nothing and feels that only losers pay taxes it is even less palatable. Trump claimed that he would make the tax system fairer and easier to navigate. Let me pay nothing and I will say that he has finally achieved his first campaign promise.
51
Many of us realize that we pay taxes to experience the improvements in our communities and in our states. I no longer want to watch people of great wealth strategize about not contributing to their proper share of taxes. I will not support their political campaigns or their businesses.
This is not Capitalism it is greed.
118
@Susan MURPHY
I agree, Susan. I have always considered paying taxes to be my duty, my way to contribute to the upkeep of my beautiful country, and to the well-being of all of my fellow citizens.
3
I wish columnists and reporters would refer to the increased deficit or, in this case, the reduced revenues as a gross number and a cost per income tax payer.
$2.3 billion in lost revenues is about $20,000.00 per income tax payer. $40,000 for joint filers.
I resent the gov't burdening me with so much additional debt to give Don Jr. a tax break
126
For some, hard times generates greater empathy for the pain of others, and policies to protect from pain become their platform. It is part of their personal narrative and reason to run for office. For Trump, however, he denies the pain, reframes it as success, and supports policies that will protect him in the future. That is what hucksters do. You have it right, Ms. Collins. To be insulted by him is a badge of honor.
62
It is going to take some really big tax cuts to pay for all that infrastructure.
34
@Charles Vekert lol, and thanks for the wry comment.
It’s one thing to make fun in good jest, but another to do it while your tribe is fastening the noose.
Donald Trumps financial troubles in 80s and 90s were no secret, he acknowledged it often during those times and the tax issues surrounding it all might even be shady, but that has nothing to do with Russia— and isn’t that what this is supposed to be about?
I’m no fan of the Prez, but Humor has its place. It seems trite when a sensible evaluation takes place of the downright nasty politics and journalism today. Sad.
@No One
It has nothing to do with Russia except for the fact that after his losses regular banks knew he was toxic, but the Russians saw an opportunity to do as Eric Trump said, and "provide all the money he needed". And that they now own Trump.
56
@No One Humor is our coping mechanism. Without it, we would be crying. I do take exception to making fun of his hair, or his non-politically involved children, but otherwise this giant con job deserves little respect or dignified responses.
10
@No One We don't know that it wasn't Russian money that bailed him out of this "unfortunate period" in his otherwise "stellar life".
"In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets..." Donald Trump, Jr. September 2008
You find sensible evaluation trite and sad? Interesting.
Donald Trump may be a loser in multiple senses including economic. However, a dirty secret of capitalism is that more people lose money in business than make it. I say that because the majority of people who start a business fail. Sure, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Larry Page and so many other billionaires started their companies in the proverbial garage. They wrote their business plans on napkins etc. etc.. But the statistics show 80 percent or more of startups fail.
Failure in capitalism is not reserved just for entrepreneurs. If you owned General Electric stock twenty years ago you might have considered yourself a very lucky person. The company had a market valuation of over 500 billions at its peak. GE was the model for success. Now of course, GE is a shadow of its former. The company has lost 80 percent of its market capitalization. Adjusted for inflation, an investor would have lost 85 to 90 percent of his money.
But GE is just one example. Do you own any stock in Lucent technologies or Nortel? These companies were each worth a quarter of a trillion dollars twenty years ago at the height of the telecom boom. They both disppeared. A million dollars in Nortel stock is worth virtually nothing today. A billion dollars would be worth nothing.
100 years ago U.S. Steel was the most valuable company in the world. That is no longer true. Amazon is worth a thousand times more. There are countless examples.
9
@Yankelnevich Yes, but the difference in regards to D. Trump is that he claims to many things that are not true, acts in a vile, derogatory fashion in his dealings with various people and countries and yet despite all this enters politics away from the business world, runs for the Presidency and wins! And due to the current low unemployment and economic growth rates, enough Americans may actually be willing to elect him back for a 2nd term in office, despite all the warning signals that have been flashing about him since 2016 and onwards...
51
@Yankelnevich
Einstein predicted that capitalism will consume itself and be replaced by socialism. Capitalism is described as “creative destruction”, unfortunately the people are the ones being impoverished and destroyed. That isn’t sustainable in the long term. Kind of like a star that consumes itself units death spiral.
@Marc Faltheim
Some Americans might be willing to let this loser keep his empty title of president, but most of us won't. I didn't vote for him in 2016 (I grew up in NY and knew full well of his reputation as a loser), and I won't in 2020.
My prayer is that given the current daily events of the debacle aka Trump presidency, Trump will be a very distant and awful memory sooner than later. Fingers crossed.
Trump's revelations about his finances demonstrate not the 'art of the deal' but the art of 'deficit spending'. He has just carried it over the Republican's agenda.
34
Thanks, Ms. Collins, for yet again injecting a bit of humor into what is an exceedingly humorless situation. You are a gift.
However, though we talk and talk, commenting to vent our frustrations, things only get worse. I've reached the conclusion that even if progressives prevail next November not just in the race for the Oval Office but also in the even more important contest for control of the senate, we are finished as a nation. For what have we learned in the last two plus years is that we are now so polarized, possessed of diametrically opposite belief systems and concepts of government, that it is impossible to conceive how we can come together - on anything. And that is not the least bit funny. It is tragic.
52
@Michael While I agree with you about the wreckage of our country, the reason we are in this spot is because of Mitch MacConnell and the Republicans in the Senate. God knows Obama tried to reach across the aisle, but was stonewalled. Mr. MacConnell said straight out: we will block his every measure. The playing field cannot be level when one team is not playing fair or by the rules. And under that scenario the Republicans cannot fulfill their pledge to serve the will of the People.
12
@Michael-I agree -you sadly are right-
1
And McConnell’s obduracy was completely partisan. Some of Obama’s efforts, like the ACA, were taken directly from Republican state laws, while others upheld principles of the common good and sound finance, but were rejected to prevent any credit for good governance to accrue to the Obama legacy.
2
By now the American public should have finally-
after so many billionaires have paid no taxes,
and after learning about the "sport" of tax evasion-
learned something.
Our intricate tax codes so rife with special interest exemptions, need a giant overhaul.
If you have no net earnings, the gross chiseled down
by write-offs, which are so easy to conjure, you are broke.
Or should be. Enough of this rigged game.
Tax reform, everybody pays, fine, whatever it takes.
60
Trump is all too aware of his own tax situation. Congress and state governments have continually allowed real estate developers to avoid taxes while laundering money with little penalty. That needs to end.
104
What's so frustrating is that this new information about his business losses and non-payment of federal taxes will only impress his base. They will believe that his ability to evade taxes legally, to "play the system," further proves his brilliance. As he said in one of the debates when Hillary pointed out that he didn't pay federal taxes, "That makes me smart." Ugh!
Teflon Don, indeed.
85
@Marie
At the risk of coming off as a pedant, there is no such thing as legal tax evasion; but there is legal tax avoidance. Given the Trump family’s clearly illegal estate tax evasions and the IRS’s Republican manufactured inability to go after the truly wealthy because of budget and staff reductions, it is pretty clear Trump is a tax cheat who has gotten away with it because no one, yet, has really held him legally accountable. If Trump’s base is okay with that, then shame on them.
Regardless, that’s the story of Trump’s life: a living horror story of why the self-entitled rich are not held to the same legal standards as the rest of society. That is not class warfare, that is reality. And reforming that problem should also be a pillar of the Democratic party’s agenda to get America back on track.
82
@D. Smith You are a pedant who made a great point. Thank you.
@Marie His supporters love him for the same reason many people, sadly, love 'The Sopranos': envy of a life style they wish they could get away with. They'd love him even more if really did 'shoot somebody on 5th avenue' which he bragged he could get away with (as long as it was somebody else's family who got shot).
The 90% of R's who keep adoring and idolizing Trump very much remind me of Patrick Suskind's novel "The Perfume". In it, people who are exposed to a perfume made by the main character (Grenouille aka DJT) fall into an orgy of worshipping him, ignoring all the bad things he had done. Only at the end, when he runs out of the magically captivating perfume do people realize his true character and bring him to justice. There is hope then that Donald's perfume eventually will fade away.
94
@W
great book was made into a pretty good movie
recommend both highly!
@W Just one little correction there: Grenouille uses the last of his parfume by spilling the rest over himself. The people are so overwhelmed by love for him, that they literally love him to bits or as the German proverb says: Jemanden zum Fressen gern haben. (to love someone so much you devour him.)
But true, Trump reminds one of Grenouille.
Unfortunately the Trump taint just sticks to people and makes them stink even worse.
I'm looking forward to learning what long-term experts in the real estate development industry have to say about the NY Times report and Trump's responses to it. I hope the Times will do a follow-up study which covers this.
77
WHO KNEW that a life and “career” built on vast inheritance, lies, bullying, boasting and scams might not produce enlightened and effective 21st Century leadership?
Well, at least 65 million of us knew. One can only hope that some others have figured it out in the last couple years.
211
Very few if any Trump voters will ever admit that they were conned by the Cheeto Benito because it exposes their incredible ignorance and naivete, not to mention a prediliction to fascist bigotry and misogyny.
Let’s not concentrate on converting the deplorables, that’s hopeless. Let’s concentrate on backing the Democratic candidate in 2020 in a concerted effort to remove the Emperor Tang before he destroys the country. Let’s not get caught up in an internicene struggle for purity.
Fight for your candidate in the primaries, but if that person doesn’t get the nod don’t go off in a huff.
Vote for the Democratic candidate! Stand together! Anybody but Trump!
3
About Trump’s finances in the 90’s and his apparent losses: is it possible he lied about his losses so that he could pay less or no taxes?
37
@Eric Hill "is it possible he lied about his losses so that he could pay less?"
That seems to be his defense--"it was a sport".
But the question for us is: Are we more impressed by his ability to lie to the IRS and get away with it, or disgusted by his dishonesty and greed in cheating on his taxes so that we are considered stupid saps after paying our own taxes?
Sadly, his fans seem to think he's smart. Can't wait to see America in 30 years, when all the little trump wannabes grow up following their leader's example--lying non-stop, cheating on taxes, business deals, spouses, etc. Deplorable is too kind a word.
1
@Eric Hill: Everything is possible with Trump, except him becoming an honest man, but if he lied, he committed tax fraud (again).
1
He needs losses so he can avoid scrutiny over laundering sanctioned cash.
1
Excellent article. Little Donnie the famous hundredaire! A great Mob name!
On a more serious note, although America's infrastructure looks shabby and outdated compared to Europe's, China's, Malaysia's or Singapore's, it won't help to simply pour zillions of tons of concrete and asphalt in 1970's fashion, without rethinking mobility in an innovative, future-oriented post-oil economy. Today's concepts, sitting there ready to implement in American universities, public and corporate research institutes - not day before yesterday's - are needed, and the US should be a trailblazer, as it has been in the past.
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@Ramesh Biswas
I have never understood why there is no Infrastructure lobby with the same clout as the Defense lobby. There are billions and billions to be made just updating water and sewer mains, the electric grid, and on and on. and many billions more on new ideas.
We spend and spend on tanks and planes for which there is little return on investment while infrastructure projects completed in the 1930's pay dividends to this day.
C'mon O&G, Bechtel, Flour, Turner, AECOM, and all the rest of the big US consruction firms. You all should be banging the drum loudest of all for infrastructure investment.
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Agree. Even Manhattan looks like a neglected outhouse compared to Singapore.
Many Trump voters cited his successful business experience as a major reason they voted for him. How ironic that he was at one point the most unsuccessful businessman in the U.S., based on his tax losses, and has frequently lost money year after year. Do you think this will make the slightest bit of difference to his core voters? Nah, I didn't think so either. At this point they're so deeply embedded in their non-MSM fantasy world this news won't even cause a ripple.
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@Bob G.
The base will justify his past business "acumen" and call him the come back kid.
That is if they still believe he really is a wealthy person......sounds like they do
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@Bob G.
Probably a great number of trump’s supporters feel a real affinity towards him, because they’re all in debt themselves and are impressed by how he’s manipulated the IRS.
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For every William Barr, and Kellyanne Conway, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, there is someone who cares about our democracy and knows the corrosive lies of Mr. Trump can best be countered with facts and the truth. Whoever conveyed the tax information, thank you. Thank you to The Times. Thank you to the First Amendment. I live in the mountains and spent Tuesday on a weekly provision run to town. When I got back, as is my practice, the first thing I did was go online to see what happened. The article literally left me breathless. It made me think that with citizens of conscience and courage, and a free press, we may survive this mess. We may show the world the ideal of America still exists. That’s a lot, I know. But when you see light piercing the darkness, it is the power of light which remains.
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@Alan
"For every William Barr, and Kellyanne Conway, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, there is someone …..who knows the corrosive lies of Mr. Trump can best be countered with facts and the truth."
Well , the Trump-Kushner crime family are still squatting in the WH abetted by the GOP so I am starting to think that maybe the USA is not really any better than the crime family that lied their way into the WH.
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“What we need most is road repair. Filling potholes is all well and good, but it doesn’t come under the category of “gleaming.”
But what about the metaphorical “roads paved with gold” which Trump promised his presidency would deliver to ordinary Americans? Don’t they qualify as “gleaming?” Then again, it is undeniable that those roads all lead to the doors of corporate donors, billionaire bankers and investors and the president himself and they are in no need of repair.
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@Susan
The only gold that ordinary Americans are receiving is pyrite.
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It seems to me that either Trump still owes a lot of borrowed money or his creditors have forgiven his debt. When a loan is written down by a creditor, doesn't that create taxable income for the borrower?
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@TH: That's why we need to see his tax returns. If he still has creditors, who are they? We can be certain they are not American banks. If he has no creditors anymore, did he pay taxes?
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So now we have Trump's formula for "success." It's losing lots of money. Perhaps MAGA isn't quite the right slogan for his presidency. How about MABA-Make America Broke Again? Looking at the skyrocketing deficit, it's clear that Trump is wildly successful at going for broke.
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@Looking from Afar: I think his scheme is to just double down. You lose a round? Then double down. Keep doubling down and you never lose, you always win. Someone has always seemed willing to lend Mr. Toad enough money to keep doubling down. And look where all that doubling down got him? To the most powerful perch in the world. But he doesn't perch. He squats.
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So you are broke as a result of Trump? Really? lol
Great title. Perfectly describes his relationship with his supporters.
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What we will learn in the coming months is that Trump has multiple sets of books. One is for the IRS where he shows large losses and so avoid paying taxes. A second is for external investors who see how he was making money and so would be ablev to pay them back for the loans. A third is for his family which shows them their actual assets, liabilities, cash flow and so forth.
This is all allowed under American tax laws and accounting principles.
It reminds me of an old joke:
"A man walks up to a farmer and says: "That train just drove through your herd. What was the worth of the cattle?"
The farmer replies "Are you from the railroad or the county assessor?"
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@Brad "This is all allowed under American tax laws and accounting principles."
You sure about that? There are some interesting accounting tricks which are legal but there are also rules which can get broken. Then the question is will the law-breaker be held to account or will he be let off.
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@Jack Toner When the law breaker chooses the IRS Commissioner, all beets are off.
@Brad
Considering the fact that it is well known and extensively covered that he was a pariah among banks in the 90's -- and real people lost real money as he left them holding the bag -- your argument is about as convincing as a diploma from trump university.
He was able to shield his personal wealth because daddy propped him up. Deutsche Bank didn't get the same love.
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A super-excellent column.
Thank you,, Gail.
Would that the Trump base would read this--and understand it!
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@Gloria Utopia
The base follows the same chop logic: only suckers pay tenses, and the government should do more about this, that, and the other.
@Gloria Utopia Or even care.
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Trump's huge loss deductions are not exactly new news. A few years ago, the NY Times explained that the losses from his casinos were on the order of $900 million but his share was only maybe $50 or $60 million. The rest of the actual loss was by banks and maybe some investors.
Yet somehow he took the entire $900 million as a tax loss. I don't know if that was appropriate under then tax law but yes or no, it sure would be good reason to see his returns. Congress could then determine the loophole to be closed or his fraudulent filing to add to grounds for impeachment.
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@Donald Joseph Apparently there are accounting gimmicks that let one entity claim another's losses for tax purposes. Are there any legitimate reasons for allowing this?
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@Jack Toner, also, Doesn’t he talk endless about the “system” being “rigged”? He should know.
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There is definitely the germ of a plan to get under the president's skin in this article. Let's all start referring to Trump as little Donnie Trump, the thousandaire. Since he likes giving other people nicknames, let's see how he reacts to this one being used by all the presidential candidates and liberal pundits in the media. I bet that placards with this nomenclature outside his rallies would get a reaction. He needs to know how it feels to be belittled like Pocahontas, Crooked Hilary, Lying Ted and all the others.
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@Leo How about “Little Donnie No Bucks?”
1
It’s funny how you can get used to the worst of things.
I find that 2 years and 3 months into his Presidency, I am angry about the mess... less, and less often.
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@David Martin: Sounds like you're numbing out, David. I keep wanting to just put my head in the sand, vote D no matter what, and really let it all go. But I find it truly difficult.
We all desire escape from this. He wants us to numb out. We can't do that.
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@David Martin
Are you serious? My fear and despair have grown by the day--by the minute these last few weeks.
@David Martin "outrage fatigue"? In your case it may be because the gilets jaunes have replaced the orange blob.
I never thought of paying taxes as “sport”. I don’t like paying taxes but I realize that taxes are necessary for our society to function.
.
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@Javaforce - And how appropriate that all of this is coming out during Teacher Appreciation Week, when we celebrate those who are paid by those who recognize that paying taxes is not for suckers but for the benefit of all.
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@Javaforce
Nobody likes paying taxes but everybody likes what taxes paid for. Taxes are the price of a civilization.
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@Javaforce
The evasion was the "sport" I believe.
1
Unfortunately, we the people along with our Constitution are all on the Trump Shuttle.
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Am I missing something in all this discussion about what a lousy businessman Trump was (is)? I understand that what he then did borders on investment fraud. He would buy some stocks then spread a rumor about taking over a company and by touting his great business acumen all over town the price of the stock would rise and he would sell and make a tidy profit. That to me is even more despicable. How many people got suckered by his con?
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@Rachele E Levy
"During his business career, President Donald Trump acted like a corporate raider, reportedly using debt to buy shares in a company while suggesting he might soon become a majority owner to boost its value before he sold the holdings quietly to pocket the gains.
According to a Tuesday report in The New York Times, which obtained new tax information on the president, Trump made millions of dollars between 1986 & 1988 using this tactic until investors eventually caught on to what he was doing and ignored his claims."
- Newsweek, Thu, May 09, 2019
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@Rachele E Levy
I think he is still doing it now. He makes a grand proclamation by twitter which predictably makes the stock market go up, then changes his mind. I think he or his family are buying and selling to profit off of these ups and downs which he is creating.
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@Rachele E Levy
Believe it or not, that was very common in the mid to late 80s. Junk bonds, corporate raiders, LBOs made for a total casino mentality. Buy up some stock, announce you were thinking of taking it over, and then sell at for a profit when, uh, you changed your mind.
Basically, all you needed was a note from Mike Milken that he'd sell some junk bonds to finance you.
2
Hey, give the guy some credit. In 2016 he sold the Brooklyn Bridge to sophisticates in the 'fly over' states, you know, the states with disproportionate representation in the Senate and in the Electoral College, and got himself elected president. And for the past two years, he has convinced them to pay condo fees.
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The one who wanted to help those DACA Dreamers wound up shutting down the government over a border wall.
That's just a beautiful sentence, Gail, keep it up - we need you in these desperate times..
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Donald Trump, the ability to go into unlimited debt, covered by a printing press for money=economic weapon of mass destruction.
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Donald Trump has spent his entire "career" as a con artist. Whether it was Trump University, Trump steaks, Trump casinos, Trump charity, he was consistently cheating someone by offering something essentially worthless, overpriced, over-leveraged or a sham. His famous "Art of the Deal" illustrating his great negotiating skills, essentially intimidation coupled with creative hyperbole (i.e. lying), was ghost-written. Is it any wonder that he lost a billion dollars doing lousy deals? Someone who never reads, who acts impulsively, who is so obsessed with being famous that he hangs fake Time magazine covers of himself at his golf clubs, who displays constant grandiosity ("I know more than the generals", "I'm a very stable genius"), who is incapable of ever admitting making a mistake, why would he want anyone to know the truth about his businesses? Part of Trump's con is convincing his supporters that he is too rich to be corrupt, whereas, in fact, despite his evident corruption (breaking the emoluments clause alone) he is much less successful than he claims. As Robert Reich has pointed out, if Trump had simply invested daddy's money in an indexed fund, he really would be a billionaire.
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@James, Toronto, CANADA Through the years, I've often found the most clear headed thinking about American politics comes from across the border. 'Cheating' is the word Americans should be using to describe the actions of the Very Stable Genius through his many careers, except, perhaps, his WWE gigs - which were predicated on the idea of rigged competition, so nothing that happened there could be described as cheating. That was all sport or make believe. Maybe the word 'deception' applies as well.
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@James, Toronto, CANADA
Beautifully said, James. Thing is, he's scamming a system that has long excluded his base and kept them down. By flogging their ongoing hatred and suspicion of it, he distracts them from his increasingly-blatant lies, greed, and incompetence.
The scary question is this: what's it going to take to finally wake them up?
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@James, Toronto, CANADA
On CNN last night, the author of The Art of the Deal said that the book should be renamed The Sociopath. While he was "writing" the book, Donald Trump was bragging to everyone about his casinos, about what successes they were. Turns out that he knew full well that all were losing buckets of money and soon to go under. He knew and he lied to everyone, including his ghost writer.
4
He said, during one of the presidential debates, that he was a canny businessman, and that only mugs pay taxes. Still the mugs voted for him. And they will again. Because mugs are happy when the king throws scraps to them. Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king. (Maybe he'll get Papa Kushner's old cell?)
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No serious person doubts that Donald Trump is mentally unstable, is fixated on his own personal interests to the exclusion of the interests of the country, is a chronic and pathological liar and is in thrall to Putin for reasons that remain unclear.
Or doubts that he was a draft dodger, cheats on his taxes, has engaged in many criminal business practices, treats women as casual playthings, harbors deep racial and religious prejudices and has no prior experience, knowledge or interest in learning the actual workings or purposes of government.
The Barrs, Lindsey Grahams and Mitch McConnell of the world who deny this are deluding themselves or are so desperate to cling to power that they are willing to tolerate the presence of a deeply flawed and failing man in the highest office in the land on the off-chance that he may somehow do them and the country some good; notwithstanding the enormous damage he has already done to the country.
How do we get rid of him now? By continuing to challenge in every venue available to us the the idea that he has ever been anything but a snake oil salesman and outlandish crook.
And by letting Trump be Trump.
The evidence is all around us now that his ship is sinking fast. The S.S. Trump has hit a large iceberg. Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Nadler are after him. Though it won't be easy or happen fast, I expect to see him and many of the passengers on board his boat disappearing under the waves before his term is over.
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@A. Stanton
Your points are excellent, but his base remains true.
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@A. Stanton
Okay, I'll accept your "no serious person doubts that..." - but what about his 9-in-20 Americans base? Are they non-serious persons, or cynical serious ones?
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@A. Stanton S.S.Trump indeed
trump sets sail
on the Great Ship of State
along with all his crew.
The wags have already dubbed it
the General Slocum II.
Off to the Bermuda Triangle,
next port-of-call unknown.
1
Anyone want to invest in the stock of one of Trump's companies? Oops, none of his companies are public -- he probably doesn't want to get caught doing securities fraud. But now, apparently, he may have done that too if its true he inflated his intentions to buy other companies in a pump and dump scheme.
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