Tax records show Trump lost money during most of his presidency

By 
 December 22, 2022

The House Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines this week to release six years worth of former President Donald Trump's tax returns, and they contain a major revelation.

According to the New York Post, the documents show that Trump regularly hemorrhaged millions of dollars between 2015 and 2020.

Records detail a cumulative gross negative income of $53.2 million

While Trump made $24.3 million in 2018 and another $4.4 million in 2019, those gains were outweighed by the huge losses he saw in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020.

Over the six year period in question, the former president and first lady experienced a cumulative gross negative income of $53.2 million.

That discovery appears to fly in the face of longstanding allegations from critics that Trump leveraged his time in office for personal financial gain.

Steven Cheung is a Trump spokesman, and he told The Wall Street Journal that releasing Trump's tax returns amounted to an "unprecedented leak by lame duck Democrats."

Cheung argued the move represents a threat to the rule of law, saying, "If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause."

Democrat proses new law on presidential audits

Following the vote on Tuesday evening to release Trump's tax returns, committee Chairman Richard Neal decried the IRS' initial failure to comply with a 1977 requirement that it conduct an audit of the then president.

In fact, the panel’s 29-page executive summary reveals that the IRS only began looking into Trump's 2015 tax returns when Neal sent a letter to the agency in April of 2019.

The Post cited a statement issued by Neal which read, "The Committee expected that these mandatory audits were being conducted promptly and in accordance with IRS policies."

"We anticipated the IRS would expand the mandatory audit program to account for the complex nature of the former president’s financial situation yet found no evidence of that," the Massachusetts congressman continued.

"This is a major failure of the IRS under the prior administration, and certainly not what we had hoped to find," the Democratic lawmaker complained before adding, "But the evidence is clear. Congress must step in."

The Post noted that Neal is now proposing legislation which would mandate an an initial IRS report coming no later than 90 days after a president has filed his or her tax return.

However, the paper also acknowledged how Neal's proposal is unlikely to gain traction given how Republicans will are scheduled to take control of the House.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson
© 2015 - 2024 Conservative Institute. All Rights Reserved.