2020 race: Why tax revelations won’t hurt Trump with his rusted-on supporter base
David Charter

Accusations of a “tax bombshell” can be highly potent in an election campaign because they usually go directly to what voters care about: their pockets.

Will explosive claims about President Trump’s career of tax avoidance have the same impact?

During the 2016 campaign he did not suffer at the ballot box despite failing to follow every presidential candidate since Gerald Ford in publishing his tax returns. His numbers were “under audit”, he claimed, and the details of his tax affairs in The New York Times suggest why: he has been battling the Internal Revenue Service for years to retain a dollars 72.9 million refund, while apparently paying precious little.

Two factors will decide whether this is a tipping point that finally breaks through and erodes some of the support he has had from his rock-solid base for four years.

How will they hear?

First: how will they hear about it? This is the kind of moment that Mr Trump has spent years preparing his base for; a huge negative story broken by the liberal media that he has harangued as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people”.

His lengthy campaign to condition his supporters to reject anything detrimental printed in the mainstream media enabled him to deflect recent disclosures based on anonymous sources in The Atlantic magazine that he insulted fallen American soldiers as “losers” and “suckers”.

Conservative US media played down the tax issue on Monday and prepared for the first presidential debate with headlines from a report by Republican senators about money allegedly sent to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, from the wife of a former mayor of Moscow.

If they hear, will they care?

Second: do they care? There is an argument that Mr Trump’s wheeler-dealing is already baked in and that his supporters not only accept his tax chicanery, they admire it. This was, after all, a big part of the first presidential debate in 2016, when Hillary Clinton accused Mr Trump of not paying federal taxes and he retorted: “That makes me smart.”

The New York Times plans to drip out more of Mr Trump’s tax details during the closing weeks of the election campaign. The Democrats will do all they can to ensure that everyone hears about the mere $US750 he is said to have paid in personal tax, and it may have some impact, especially if the economy does not make the “super V-shaped recovery” the president is touting.

Mr Trump created a huge problem for himself in not publishing his taxes on his own terms: he is left trying to brand The New York Times version as “fake news” while also claiming that these fake details were “illegally obtained” and that he was “entitled to depreciation and tax credits”. He wants Americans to dismiss the revelations but at the same time he wants to explain them.

In a divided country where much of the media has long since taken sides, many of his supporters are likely to see this as simply election mudslinging by the opposition.

The Times

One of the richest men in Australia once said something like... he minimised his tax and anyone who doesn't is stupid because the government doesn't deserve more money because they misuse it...
If Trump follows the rules the Dems have no legs to stand on.... but as with all Progs they will throw mud hoping it will stick and they will lie in order to see that it does.

The NYT was hilarious, accusing Trump of raking in untold millions on international deals in one breath; and in the next calling him incompetent for constantly losing money. Which is it?

The Times will never recover from Trump’s unprecedented refusal — as is his right — to make his tax returns public. Four years later, and they’re still beating the same dead horse.

If Trump is a crook for wanting to pay the taxman as little as possible, so is every taxpayer in every jurisdiction in the world.

Really good points. Also, exposing the taxes was supposed to prove the whole Russia ties. That could be an interesting angle.

"The New York Times released an article attempting to expose President Trump for supposed issues with his taxes. However, it actually ended up exonerating him in the left-wing conspiracy regarding him being owned by Russia."
[thepalmierireport.com]

Hunter is definitely a weak spot for Biden, I haven't seen him that fired up at reporters in a while. Hope he's as sharp tongued in debate. More genuine and less superficial is what I like to see.

I mean that sincerely, actually. I don't want to hear "what I want to hear", I want truth. Both sides.

Reports say he didn't actually follow the law though. For example, there are reports about Trump paying Ivanka "consulting fees" and writing them off, while she was actually an employee of the company. This violates IRS law, and they could both be held criminally accountable for this. Let's also not forget the Gaming Law violation he and his father engaged in to bail out one of his casinos.

Maybe if he released his tax returns, as he kept promising, this could all be cleared up.