Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scrambling after a New York Times report revealed he might’ve not paid taxes for 18 years.
WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is trying to steer his campaign through another controversy after the discovery he may not have paid federal income taxes for as many as 18 years.
After the New York Times reported Trump may have canceled out years of income taxes by declaring a $916 million loss on his 1995 return, his allies mounted a vigorous defense Sunday by arguing that the revelation was proof of the businessman’s “genius.”
The Times did not look at his federal return. It obtained one page of his New York State resident income tax return as well as the first page of New Jersey and Connecticut nonresident returns.
Voters in some battleground states, such as Iowa, have already begun casting their ballots. However, with Election Day only five weeks away, Hillary Clinton and her campaign will labor this week to keep Trump in a downward trajectory. Asked about Trump’s plans to portray Clinton as a compromised multimillionaire, communications director Jennifer Palmieri laughed.
“He has a lot to answer for,” Palmieri said, claiming that Trump’s businesses have cheated contractors and outsourced jobs.
Trump plans to begin his defense Monday with his scheduled rally in Colorado — the billionaire real estate mogul hopes to recover by driving a contrast between how he and Bill and Hillary Clinton made their fortunes. Trump plans to argue that he built a global real estate empire and employed thousands of people, while the Clintons got rich delivering paid speeches to financial institutions and other corporate interests, according to his aides.
“We’re going to shine the spotlight very brightly on how the Clintons made their money,” senior adviser Jason Miller said. “They were so broke when they left the White House that they couldn’t pay either of their mortgages, they haven’t invented anything, they haven’t won Powerball, they haven’t so much as billed a single hour of legal work, yet they’re worth a couple hundred million dollars.”
The Clinton campaign responded:
“Donald Trump’s campaign is showing all the signs of entering a spiral,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said. “At a very critical stage in the campaign, he is making our own arguments for us about his lacking the temperament to be president. As he continues to lash out and go low, as he flails to keep things together, we are intending to focus on her affirmative vision.”
