"We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes."
-- Leona Helmsley, 1983, according to her former housekeeper's court testimony.
The fake news turns out to be Donald Trump's success story.
Someone sent old federal income tax records of Trump's to the New York Times. Reporters there compared the figures to public records of the very rich. They found a match.
Trump's fortune comes from his dad, Fred. As for the president, I made more money than Donald Trump did every year from 1985 to 1994. So did anyone else bringing home a paycheck without drowning themselves in debt. Even those drowning themselves did not use as much red ink. Donald Trump set a record for biggest losses of any individual taxpayer during those years.
One billion dollars in losses in 10 years. Claiming the younger Trump only reported such losses to avoid paying taxes is like arguing someone cut off his legs to avoid athlete's foot. Donald survived as a high roller because of Fred's money. I am left wondering why the now-deceased senior Trump put up with this even in his dotage.
No one should be surprised. I am just a wiseguy from Arkansas and I saw this coming, though not to this degree. On March 4, 2017, the president was two months into his administration. Allow me to quote myself from that day in this space about him not releasing his tax returns. "My guess is the biggest 'scandal' here from Trump's point of view is this: He is not as rich as he pretends to be. He does not have the Midas management touch, either. Revealing that would hurt his vanity. He would be ashamed of that. That might be the only thing he can be ashamed of. Being seen a rich world-beater matters to him."
Nailed it.
So the president is a fraud. No big shock there. The effect on the next election will not be as great as it should be. The Republican Party is stuck with him.
The theme of the next GOP campaign is already clear. Elect us, including President Red Ink, or the country will go socialist. My, how things have changed.
I am old enough to remember the Democratic Party being reduced to ashes by the end of the 2016 election. I can even remember the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. I put this in print on Jan. 2, 2016, a year before Trump took office: "Republicans gained a net of 69 seats in the U.S. House, 13 in the Senate, more than 900 in state legislatures and added 12 governors since Democrats peaked in 2009 ... No unbiased observer can look at that map and conclude this nation is a bursting boiler of discontents steaming for President Bernie Sanders."
Donald Trump is the Democratic Party's savior.
But hey, suppose I am wrong. Suppose the nation teeters on the brink of becoming the Union of Socialist Republics of America.
Then perhaps electing a president who personifies every vice capitalism was ever accused of was not a great idea.
Trump does not pay taxes. His fortune consists of inherited wealth. His one major legislative accomplishment is a tax cut that mostly benefits the rich. He is clownishly incompetent but lives the life of a tycoon anyway. His former reputation as a business genius comes from shallow self-promotion. He stiffed contractors.
Trump is a walking, loudly talking caricature of everything any socialist ever accused capitalism of.
"No one has done more to encourage socialism in America than Donald Trump and Republican leaders who support him. Not even Bernie," Trump critic Evan McMullin said last week.
But the economy is going great guns, the president's defenders say. Yes, it is and I am as happy at full employment and wage increases as anyone. I do not believe in magic, however.
The government is running a $1 trillion deficit during the high side of the business cycle. If the economy was not going great guns, we would have to rewrite Economics 101.
The president took us to the most posh restaurant in town, ordered a feast, charged it to our credit card and now brags about what a great cook he is.
Here is a good rule of thumb. Take anything the president says. Believe the exact opposite. The results will be right more often than not.
Commentary on 05/18/2019