Yet another Trump witch hunt has concluded not with a bang but a whimper.
The Democrat-controlled House Ways and Means Committee released thousands of pages of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, Fox News reported. What did they show? As Tucker Carlson put it, Trump got poorer while others, like Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi, got richer.
No evidence of Russian collusion or other nefarious dealings. Nada.
Any lack of proper taxation on Trump’s earnings appears to have been a failure of the IRS, not the result of “pressure or obfuscation from the White House,” Fox reported.
Tucker: Trumps tax returns show he got poorer in office while Mitch McConnell & Nancy Pelosi got filthy rich pic.twitter.com/CajistNYpo
— Ethan Harsell (@ethan_harsell) December 24, 2022
The Ways and Means Committee’s Republican leader, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, blasted the release of Trump’s tax information in a statement.
“Democrats have charged forward with an unprecedented decision to unleash a dangerous new political weapon that reaches far beyond the former president, overturning decades of privacy protections for average Americans that have existed since Watergate.”
“Going forward,” Brady continued, “all future Chairs of both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee will have nearly unlimited power to target and make public the tax returns of private citizens, political enemies, business and labor leaders or even the Supreme Court justices themselves.”
Should Trump’s tax returns have been released?
Yes: 2% (37 Votes)
No: 98% (1904 Votes)
The financial documents cover six years, including Trump’s time in the White House. There are nearly 6,000 pages of material, including 2,700 pages of individual returns and over 3,000 pages from Trump’s businesses, according to Fox.
The documents show, among other things, that Trump’s businesses used losses, foreign tax credits, deductions and charitable donations in offsetting taxation on profits. Why wouldn’t they?
The Joint Committee on Taxation reviewed the documents and claimed that large losses before and throughout Trump’s presidency were carried forward to reduce his tax burden. For example, his returns show that he carried forward a $105 million loss in 2015 and $73 million in 2016, according to CNN.
The JCT also claimed that Trump claimed a large number of questionable items on his tax returns, including interest received from loans to his children. The committee seemed to be whispering that Trump might have been disguising gifts to his children as loans. How evil can one get?
It was also shown that Trump maintained foreign bank accounts in countries such as the U.K., Ireland and China. The Chinese bank account was connected to Trump International Hotels Management, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten told The New York Times when it came to light in 2020.
The report showed Trump paid a combined $1.1 million in federal income taxes in 2018 and 2019, according to another CNN report. He only paid $750 in 2017 and $0 in 2020.
The JCT made no claims that Trump should have paid more or less in taxes in the years it reviewed, according to CNN. Lots of smoke, but no fire. Why? Because there isn’t one.
It appears Trump got poorer while in office. Is that so difficult to understand? He was busy running the country and claims to have donated his salary to charity.
Complicated tax set-ups, it is safe to assume, are common in big operations such as Trump’s. Tax lawyers are paid big bucks to search the tax code for loopholes. They legally take advantage of them when they can.
The release of the Trump tax returns follows a years-long pursuit of the documents.
“The Democrats should have never done it,” Trump said in a statement following the release of his taxes. “The Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people.”
“The great USA divide will now grow far worse. The Radical Left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!”
“The ‘Trump’ tax returns,” he continued, “once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”
After a barrage of fruitless investigations like the Russian collusion hoax, this is the way Democrat control of the House of Representatives ends in just a few days — with hollow allegations from hollow congressmen leaning together over committee tables, their heads filled with straw.
Enough already.
But the Democrats will chalk it up as another win. They couldn’t care less if they make their case or not. For them, the process is the punishment. Political theater is their game. It’s not real. It’s fantasy.
On television and mass media, they are full of sound and fury. They want you to believe what they say, though what they say signifies nothing.
Can you hear that? Sounds like another backfire.
