The Ides of Trump?

[Guinevere]

Rachel Maddow has a 2005 Trump 1040. She and David Cay Johnston of the Daily Beast break the story tonight at 9 on MSNBC.

[RayThom]

“Et tu, Brute?”

[BoSoxGal]

Can't wait!

[rubato]

Rachel Maddow has a 2005 Trump 1040. She and David Cay Johnston of the Daily Beast break the story tonight at 9 on MSNBC.

Well lord, lord, this might be interesting. Only 1 year and 12 years in arrears but still, but still my heart the fun might really be beginning.

A nice bright little light is going to shine on Trumpty


yrs,
rubato

[dales]

2005 - - - old news - - - {YAWN}

Let me take a gander at his most recent filing.

[Lord Jim]

Looks like the press got punked...

It appears that this came from Trump himself, or someone he authorized to send it...(even though he's bloviating with faux outrage about the "illegal" publishing of the return)

A two page summary from a single year ago 11 years ago, (with no detail about where his income came from) stamped "client copy", showing him making a large income (152 million ) and paying a decent amount of federal income tax on it (38 million)...

Looks like somebody picked a nice red cherry and sent it anonymously to a reporter...

[Guinevere]

Punked? No. A cherry picked from a pile of documents? Absolutely.

[Lord Jim]

Well, it was certainly not what I was expecting from the build-up for Maddow's show...

Looks to me like they got maneuvered into making a big deal out of something that's essentially meaningless ...

But it may blow up in Il Boobce's face because now he's got the media all focusing on his failure to release any meaningful tax returns...

Of course he may prefer that to having them focused on Putingate...

[Econoline]

I've gotta admit that the first couple of questions that occurred to me (besides the obvious "Who leaked?") were (1) I wonder if 2005 was the *LAST* year Trump paid *ANY* taxes? and (b) Shouldn't a multi-billionaire be making more than $150 mil a year?

But here's an interesting take on the "over-hyped nothingburger" aspect of the story...

• Nicely done.
  
  I'm seeing a lot of comparisons to Al Capone's vault, to feeling let down, but you know what else I'm seeing?
  
  People talking about it. You know that people will stream parts of it, etc and you want to know what you just watched?
  
  You watched one hour that was one message to the right people out there.
  
  They are the people working in the offices that may have tax information from him filing for casino licenses, builders permits, loans. It was explained exactly how secure IRS vaults are- but that maybe other tax information isn't as well secured.
  
  You watched Rachel Maddow say the name David Cay Johnston over and over, you watched Rachel herself explain how things can be sent anonymously. You watched several reporters say "This is HOW you send information if you don't want to be connected with it."
  
  And it was RIGHT to hype that up, to get as many people viewing it as possible.
  
  Because yes. Those 2 pages were probably released by Donald Trump himself, so he could talk about how there was nothing there and illegal publishing and fake news and lying media...
  
  And Rachel Maddow and associates turned that into a one hour invitation for something more substantial.

(Source)

Stay tuned, folks. (Remember how long it took for Watergate to unravel?)

[Burning Petard]

My slightly senile memory says the NY Times has these same two pages before the election and gave them some publicity, but not exact quotes.

snailgate

[Guinevere]

Nope. It was a couple of pages from his 1995 NY State tax returns. Those are the ones that showed the almost billion dollar loss.

[BoSoxGal]

One of the single best sources of extensive information on all things Trump has been and is Slate's Trumpcast, a podcast I believe I've mentioned here before. Last summer they interviewed Tim O'Brien, the writer Trump sued and who was defended by his publisher with the case ultimately being tossed out - Trump's case was bogus.

Trump sued him for writing about Trump's actual net worth as he'd calculated it from careful examination of all publicly available documents - showing Trump was worth many, many millions less than he has claimed.

The podcast is excellent and I couldn't recommend it more highly - it's worth going back in time to listen to many of the old election season shows to hear all the great info on who Trump really is.

[Econoline]

“Why 2005?”

• If Trump Leaked His Own Taxes, This May Be Why 2005
  March 15, 2017 | Jen Froderman
  
  Trump 2005 Taxes were leaked and Rachel Maddow published them. Many were disappointed: not only were they from 2005 but they did not have all of the supporting pages, just the top two. He paid taxes, and nearly a fair share of them — which was shocking. There are a lot of questions, though, and one of them is how the two different years of Trump taxes we have seen are so different. And why this particular year was leaked. The answer may be very simple.
  
  Trump married a non-citizen in 2005.
  
  Why that matters is that as her sponsor, and joint filer, their joint returns were required to be made available to the federal immigration authorities in order for her to remain here on a Green Card, and again to get her citizenship. You have to show that you have no problems with the IRS to become naturalized.
  
  She was naturalized and received her citizenship in 2006, freeing them from that requirement.
  
  The 2005 tax returns are stamped, “CLIENT COPY.” So they were from his inner circle at some point. They were given as part of a loan application, or stolen, or as some have opined, he leaked them himself: they passed through his hands.
  
  If indeed, those tax returns were leaked by him or a person close to him, the one year in his past you can guarantee he would have dotted his “I”s and crossed his “T”s, shown a profit, and paid taxes would have been in 2005. He was filing jointly with a woman who would not get naturalized as a citizen if she had blemished tax papers. That year had to be perfect.
  
  This one year could likely be the most flattering to him of any year. And since we have seen other years that are the polar opposite of this year, e.g. showing a 1 billion dollar loss, we can’t just assume they are all this, well, Boy-Scout-ishly perfect. In fact, Trump could lay those thoughts to rest by releasing all the years since 2005 up until the ones supposedly still under audit… what are the chances of that?
  
  This means that the person who leaked them had a much higher probability of this coming off making Trump look decent. Why would someone choose that particular year if they had intended to embarrass him or do his reputation harm? It seems that this year would flatter Trump, and that isn’t the choice of someone opposing him.
  
  This is not definitive proof that he leaked them nor even someone close to him, though it seems that the evidence is mounting for that. However, the fact stands, due to the federal immigration oversight of his tax returns before Melania was a citizen, in 2006 and during their marriage, in 2005 that single year was most likely the most meticulous, by-the-book year on record for Trump.

[Gob]

What a strange and stupid way to run a country, 12 year old tax details? FFS!!!

[dales]

[Guinevere]

What a strange and stupid way to run a country, 12 year old tax details? FFS!!!

Got any thing you haven't already said a bazillion times, rubato?

[Lord Jim]

What a strange and stupid way to run a country, 12 year old tax details? FFS!!!

Got any thing you haven't already said a bazillion times, rubato?

[Gob]

Have I told you how I feel about....

[Lord Jim]

Have I told you how I feel about....

our...

form of government, our politicians, our politics, our state-federal system, our laws, or a lot of our Constitutional rights....

our foreign policies, our domestic policies, our tax policies, our defense policies, our health care system, our judicial system, our religiosity, or our anti terror policies....

our music, our musicians, our books, our authors, our news media, our TV shows, our movies, our actors, our actresses, our sports, our comedians our comedies, or our dramas....

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2893&p=37607&hilit= ... ies#p37607

Why yes, in fact you have, more than once...

[Gob]

Right, let me know when you want a reminder....