Tag: Donald Trump

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What’s Donald Trump Hiding?

Over the years, Donald Trump has said he would release his tax returns when President Obama released his birth certificate. Obama did, Donald didn’t.

Trump said he would release his tax returns if he ran for president. He’s running. No tax returns.

Trump said he would definitely release his tax returns after his current tax audit. The IRS said there’s no reason he can’t release them now. Still no tax returns.

Hillary Clinton and a lot of Americans now have to wonder – “What’s Donald Trump hiding?”

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Donald Trump: My Tax Rate Is “None Of Your Business”

As everyone knows, every presidential candidate since 1976 has released their tax returns.

Earlier this year, Donald Trump promised to do so. Now, he’s decided he won’t.

Or, at least, it may not be before the general election in November.

From ABC News:

Joining “Good Morning America” this morning, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked Trump what his tax rate is, and Trump simply replied, “It’s none of your business.”

“You’ll see it when I release but I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible,” Trump said.

The billionaire also said he has no foreign bank accounts and emphasized he runs a “clean” business.

“I don’t have Swiss bank accounts,” he said. “I don’t have offshore accounts.”

Trump went to say that he doesn’t not believe that voters have a right to see his tax returns before they vote, but that he would gladly made them public once the audit is over.

Stephanopoulos asked Trump: “Yes or no, do you believe voters have a right to see your tax returns before they make a final decision?”

“I don’t think they do. But I do say this, I will really gladly give them,” Trump answered, adding he has no problem releasing him and he hopes it’s before the election.

Trump went on to divert to Hillary Clinton’s “Goldman Sachs speeches” that she hasn’t released. It goes without saying that every candidate since 1976 HASN’T released transcripts of their paid speeches when out of office.

It says a lot that Trump was willing to release his taxes to get a casino license, but the American public don’t deserve the same opportunity.

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Washington Post: Donald Trump Used To Pretend To Be His Own Publicist For Press

The Washington Post has posted a fascinating ego-based story today reporting that in his early years of media attention, Republican front-runner Donald Trump would phone reporters posing as his own “publicist” to get ink in the newspapers.

Accompanying the story is an audio recording that seems to be Trump calling a People Magazine reporter using the name “John Miller.”

In 1990, Trump testified in a court case that “I believe on occasion I used that name.” He did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

In a phone call to NBC’s “Today” program Friday morning, Trump denied that he was John Miller. “No, I don’t think it — I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time and it doesn’t sound like my voice at all,” he said. “I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice and then you can imagine that, and this sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams — doesn’t sound like me.” Later, he was more definitive: “It was not me on the phone. And it doesn’t sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that, and it was not me on the phone. And when was this? Twenty-five years ago?”

Trump has never been terribly adamant about denying that he often made calls to reporters posing as someone else. From his earliest years in business, he occasionally called reporters using the name “John Barron.”

Trump’s fascination with the name “Barron” persisted for decades. When he was seeing Maples while still married to Ivana, he sometimes used the code name “the Baron” when he left messages for her. In 2004, when Trump commissioned a dramatic TV series based on the life of a New York real estate mogul like him, his only request to the writer was to name the main character “Barron.” And when Trump and his third wife, Melania, had a son, they named him Barron.

[snip]

A few weeks later, when People ran a story about Trump and Maples getting engaged, Trump was quoted saying that the John Miller call was a “joke gone awry.”

The Washington Post piece goes on to list folks who listened to the recording and clearly recognized the voice as Donald Trump’s, including his former wife Marla Maples and longtime friend Cindy Adams. Plus, the story lists other reporters who recall getting calls from a “John Miller” about The Donald back in the day.

Listen below:

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Donald Trump’s Butler Calls For The Murder Of President Obama

Donald Trump’s long-time butler at Mar-A-Lago, Anthony Peter Senecal, has posted on his Facebook a call to execute President Obama.

To all my friends on FB, just a short note to you on our pus headed “president” !!!! This character who I refer to as zero (0) should have been taken out by our military and shot as an enemy agent in his first term !!!!! Instead he still remains in office doing every thing he can to gut the America we all know and love !!!!! Now comes Donald J Trump to put an end to the corruption in government !!!! The so called elite, who are nothing but common dog turds from your front lawn are shaking in their boots because there is a new Sheriff coming to town, and the end to their corruption of the American people (YOU) is at hand !!!! I cannot believe that a common murder is even allowed to run (killery clinton) OR that a commie like bernie is a also allowed to also run !!!! Come on America put your big boy pants on—this election you have a choice—GET YOUR ASS OUT AND VOTE !!!! Thank you !!!!

Senecal stood by his post when asked by Mother Jones:

Though Senecal’s Facebook page is public, this message could only be read by his Facebook friends. In an interview with Mother Jones, Senecal confirms that those were his words: “I wrote that. I believe that.”

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign says, “This individual has not worked at Mar-a-Lago for many years.”

“I cannot stand the bastard,” Trump’s longtime butler says of Obama.”I don’t believe he’s an American citizen. I think he’s a fraudulent piece of crap that was brought in by the Democrats.”

Senecal, who is 84, says he has been employed at Mar-a-Lago since about 1959. Trump acquired the property in 1985, and Senecal remained on staff. “As [Trump] says, I came with the furniture,” Senecal remarks. About seven years later, he became the butler for the celebrity mogul who is now the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. In 2009, Senecal informed Trump he wanted to resign as butler, and Trump persuaded him to stay on as the in-house historian at Mar-a-Lago. There is no salary for the job, Senecal says, but he makes money leading tours of the estate.

Senecal regularly posts screeds on his Facebook page from a far-right perspective in which he decries Obama and his wife—along with Hillary Clinton, other Democrats, and Republican leaders. He often refers to Obama as “zero,” and several times he has called for the president’s execution. He confirms that he has written all the posts on the page that have appeared under his name. “It’s all me,” he says.

The Mother Jones article documents several of Senecal’s many racist, right-wing screeds of the past. It’s quite the read.

The post can only be seen by Senecal’s Facebook friends, but you can see screen capture below.

I’m sure The Donald is thrilled.

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Raul Ryan & Donald Trump Issue Joint Statement After “Unity” Meeting

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan tweeted out this message today after his highly anticipated meeting with presumptive Republican front-runner Donald Trump:

“The United States cannot afford another four years of the Obama White House, which is what Hillary Clinton represents. That is why it’s critical that Republicans unite around our shared principals, advance a conservative agenda, and do all we can to win this fall.”

“While we were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground.

“We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there’s a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal. We are extremely proud of the fact that many millions of new voters have entered the primary system, far more than ever before in the Republican Party’s history.

“This was our first meeting, but it was a very positive step toward unification,

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Mitt Romney On Donald Trump “It Is Disqualifying To Refuse To Release Tax Returns”

The 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took to Facebook today to denounce Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, as every presidential candidate has done since 1976.

It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service. Tax returns provide the public with its sole confirmation of the veracity of a candidate’s representations regarding charities, priorities, wealth, tax conformance, and conflicts of interest. Further, while not a likely circumstance, the potential for hidden inappropriate associations with foreign entities, criminal organizations, or other unsavory groups is simply too great a risk to ignore for someone who is seeking to become commander-in-chief.

Mr. Trump says he is being audited. So? There is nothing that prevents releasing tax returns that are being audited. Further, he could release returns for the years immediately prior to the years under audit. There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them. Given Mr. Trump’s equanimity with other flaws in his history, we can only assume it’s a bombshell of unusual size.

(Anticipating inquiries regarding my own tax release history, I released my 2010 tax returns in January of 2012 and I released my 2011 tax returns as soon as they were completed, in September of 2012.)

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Hillary Clinton On Donald Trump’s Tax Returns: “Why Doesn’t He Want To Release Them?”

We were all waiting for this.

Actually, I’m glad to see Hillary’s team pouncing on things quickly as they come up. It’s the way the game is played now.

As Hillary notes in the video, she’s got the past 8 years of her income taxes posted on her website right now.

Pony up, Trumpster.

#ImWithHer

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Jeff Daniels Goes “Will McAvoy” On Donald Trump

Jeff Daniels reprises his portrayal of The Newsroom anchor Will McAvoy to talk Trump in a Bloomberg Television produced video featuring With All Due Respect hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann.

Via Rolling Stone:

“I think for the first time in election history, her opponent might donate to her campaign,” McAvoy joked about the mogul’s past Clinton campaign contributions before launching into a Newsroom-inspired diatribe. “Yeah, Donald Trump is a fact-bending loose cannon who alienates mainstream voters with everything he says, but he gets constant media attention for free. There won’t be a day from now until November that Trump isn’t on every TV channel,” Daniels, in his McAvoy persona, told the hosts.

It’s for that reason – as well as Democrats’ less-than-enthusiastic feelings about Clinton – that McAvoy warns that Trump might be a worthier adversary than many in the political prognosticators are letting on. “Sure, she beats Trump in some categories – like millennials, who don’t even show up to vote. She also leads in the number of messages deleted on her personal email server – but that aside, when you ask, ‘What makes Trump the best-case scenario for Hillary?’ I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. His tiny hands?”

I was a big fan of The Newsroom during it’s run on HBO. Great, sharp writing by Aaron Sorkin, and strong, unapologetic performances across the board.

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Donald Trump, Breaking 40 Years Of Tradition, Will Not Release His Tax Returns

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/730462228391071745

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has reversed himself and, in an interview with the Associated Press, announced that he will not be releasing his tax returns before the election in November.

From the New York Times:

“There’s nothing to learn from them,” Mr. Trump told The A.P., explaining that he did not think voters were particularly interested in the contents of his returns.

The release of tax returns is not legally required of presidential candidates, but there is a long tradition of major party nominees putting their returns forward for the public to peruse. Joseph J. Thorndike, an adjunct college professor who tracks presidential tax returns as the director of the Tax History Project, said Mr. Trump would be the first major candidate since 1976 to not make any of his full returns public. President Gerald R. Ford released a tax summary that year.

During the heat of his primary battle, Mr. Trump said he would release his tax information and blamed the delay on the complexity of his finances. He later said that he could not do it immediately because he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, and that his lawyers advised him against it. Mr. Trump has also explained that he cannot release returns form previous years because the government audits him almost every year.

Although Mr. Trump has cited the audit as a reason for withholding his returns, Dr. Thorndike noted that President Richard M. Nixon released his under audit, starting the tradition of candidates making theirs public.

“I think 40 years of tradition carries real moral and ethical weight,” Dr. Thorndike said. “It is quite striking that a major candidate would decide not to release their tax information — especially someone with an admittedly complex tax situation.”

Among the most prominent people to call on Mr. Trump to release his returns this year has been Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee who did not want to release his tax returns but finally relented under pressure. One of the people who was encouraging him to do so that year was Mr. Trump, who said that Mr. Romney should be proud of his wealth and not hold back his financial information.

“Mitt has to get those tax returns out,” Mr. Trump said in a Fox News interview at the time. “I’m a little surprised they weren’t better prepared for that.”

You have to wonder what he’s hiding, no?