AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The Mueller Russia investigation, as we know, came up short and obstruction of justice is going nowhere and things are getting a bit desperate.
So, Democrats and the New York Times (but I repeat myself) are throwing the kitchen sink at Donald Trump and they are right proud of themselves for their latest salvo. The New York Times obtained – without question illegally – transcripts of President Trump’s tax returns for 10 years in the ’80s and ’90s. In that time, as the Times breathlessly reports, Donald Trump showed taxable losses of just over a billion dollars and paid no tax in eight of the ten years.
This proves, according to the Dems, two things. One, Donald Trump doesn’t pay his “fair share” in taxes. And two, Donald Trump isn’t the highly successful businessman that he wants everyone to believe that he is.
There are so many places to go with this story. Let’s start with this. Whomever it was at the IRS that leaked any part of any of Donald Trump’s tax returns to any outside party – including the New York Times – committed a felony. Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code sets forth the very specific and very limited situations under which the IRS may release information from individual tax returns. The purpose of doing political damage to a sitting president doesn’t qualify.
Be that as it may, it is nevertheless no secret that Donald Trump had deals that went bad. It was widely known that he was in some very distressed real estate investments. Some went bankrupt. Some went into workout.
But here’s what the Times will never report. It’s no mere accident that the tax returns that were selected to be leaked came from that time period. If you want to see an American real estate guy at his worst, pull his returns from the 1980s. Real estate deals were tanking back then. The tax loss carryforwards went on well into the 1990s.
Here’s something else the New York Times will never report. In virtually all cases, those very same developers came roaring back. It took a while. But almost all of them did. One of them was named Donald Trump.
Practically no “mainstream media” reporter understands this.
However, Donald Trump’s real estate career – good or bad – isn’t the real story. The real story is that we have been witnessing, since the morning after the 2016 election, an ongoing attempt at coup d’état. This tax return story is just one more in a series of lawless attempts to overturn the 2016 election.
And until someone is indicted for leaking tax information, or lying to a FISA court, or illegally spying on political opponents, or using the IRS to silence them, or unleashing the awesome powers of federal law enforcement to criminalize political opposition – until someone faces actual, tangible punishment – none of this is going to stop.
It’s therefore not an exaggeration to say that the very survival of the republic now rests in the hands of William Barr.
Paul, your analysis is spot on. Barr has the reins and by his history, I believe that he will successfully defend the administration. The so-called Democratic leadership is corrupt and must be replaced by the mass of the party. Honestly, I rather doubt that is going to happen, which will hamper that party from helping the nation in our recovery process.
Excellent article Paul. I will just make one comment on the sentence, “Practically no “mainstream media” reporter understands this.”
I believe they understand this very well but they are choosing to ignore it and are likely convinced that most readers don’t know enough about that era to take exception to it. I have been arguing that very point with some liberal friends.
Mike Gauthier makes a good point. I, too, think the media understands the story–at least some of the brighter ones–but they choose to misrepresent reality in their continuing effort to discredit President Trump in the eyes of their gullible and genuinely too little informed audience. I’m often left wondering when the left goes off the deep end in an issue–is it because they are stupid or dishonest? Which is it? Maybe both. But I for one have great faith in President Trump and now Attorney General Barr’s ability to stand firm and in the end discredit the would be discreditors.
He promised us he’d run the government like he runs his businesses.
Donald Trump is the very embodiment of the American entrepreneur. And he is the quintessential American real estate developer writ large. Every single real estate guy that I know or know of has experienced what Donald Trump has experienced. I happen to live in Dallas where two of the most successful real estate development companies on Earth are headquartered. Trammell Crow suffered enormous losses in the 1980s. Yet today the company, now owned by CBRE Group, is one of the largest landlords in the world. Mack Pogue, founder of Lincoln Property Company, no doubt suffered many sleepless nights in the 1980s. LPC is also, today, one of the most successful real estate developers on the planet. Both of these companies have had deals that have gone bad on a very large scale.
Both of them came roaring back.
The thing that I admire about top-level real estate guys is their resilience. You can knock them down, but you can’t knock them out. Donald Trump differs from Trammel Crow, Mack Pogue and a host of other lesser-known developers only in that his personality is much larger. In all other respects, Trump is the very essence of an American real estate developer. They are bold. They are risk-takers. They are results-oriented.
Donald Trump IS running the country like he runs his businesses. And that’s why you’re seeing results that no president — Democrat or Republican — has been able to attain in a generation or more.
And that latest trillion he racked-up for us: No problem, eh?
No. YUUUUGE problem. And the one place where I have vigorously and gladly taken him to task. https://www.youtellmetexas.com/2019/02/21/the-problem-thats-not-going-away/
THANK YOU for that.
And let’s keep-an-eye-on the REAL coup, the failed recent USA-back regime-change intervention in Venezuela. JUST the sort of senseless action Trump decried during the campaign.
Thankfully, he’s thinking-aloud lately that this “all options” Iran talk from warmongers John Bolton and Elliott Abrams is the-wrong-way-to-go.
The ignorant cheers by the media and career politicians over Trump’s huge losses in the real estate markets in Manhattan and Atlantic City in the “80’s, only reveals their life in a protected partisan bubble. As usual, the comments by Mike and Buddy have hit the nail on the head: these self-appointed experts are gullible dupes who have also become dishonest; a dangerous combination indeed! Do not forget that journalism is one of the least challenging of all college curricula, and it attracts such students as those we witness masquerading as “reporters”. Many of the career politicians who are scrambling for the microphones to impart their genius have never met a payroll in the private sector, and have been feeding from the public trough their entire adult lives. Anyone who does not understand the devastation throughout the country created by the tax law that disallowed deduction of real estate investment interest should really not be making such stupid statements. The voicing of such glee only displays their ignorance, dishonesty, or both. Regardless, everyone should give this man credit for bouncing back and being successful in the most treacherous real estate market in the U.S. However, the hapless “journalists” and career politicians are still wallowing in the two most distrusted occupations in the U.S.
AMEN about the loss of home mortgage interest deduction for regular folks who don’t pay wily accountants to itemize. No problem for rich people.
To be fair to Trump: Drill-down in the numbers, and it’s likely that he didn’t lose as much as he claimed, due to inflated property values. NUMBER OF FLOORS in Trump Tower misstated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/it-turns-out-trumps-business-success-was-a-media-made-myth/2019/05/09/eb22825e-71dc-11e9-8be0-ca575670e91c_story.html
Methinks there is a gross misunderstanding of the tax laws regarding home mortgages and real estate investment interest deductions. Of course, Trump’s losses in the the 80’s and 90’s were related to the loss of deductions for real estate investment interest (which is the subject of this discussion). This change in 80’s tax law also affected many other individuals and institutions that MOST people recall all too well. The TCJA of 2018 REDUCED home mortgage interest deduction for very expensive homes, but REGULAR folks are not affected, especially if they choose the more generous standard deduction. One of the Dem’s main criticisms of Trump’s tax plan is the loss of state income tax deductions, which mainly affects the rich folks in those states that tax income. The enemies of Trump will never admit that the TCJA of 2018 benefited REGULAR folks more than upper income folks, but it is a fact! Unfortunately, hatred can completely scramble one’s brain, and make an otherwise intelligent person sound stupid.