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Oct 2020
17m 28s

Trump's taxes

Bbc World Service
About this episode

What can the New York Times' revelations can tell us about the President's financial affairs?

President Trump paid only $750 in tax federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and paid none in 10 of the past 15 years. That's according to an investigation by The New York Times earlier this week. The President says its all fake news. He's for years refused to publish his income tax returns. David Cay Johnstone, an investigative journalist and editor with DCReport.org, says the Times revelations show why he's keeping them hidden.

Adam Davidson who's written extensively on the President's business ties, says the only way to join up the dots since the death of his father, who was continuously propping up the President's finances, and the end of his lucrative appearances on the reality TV show, The Apprentice, is to work out who's bankrolling Trump's businesses.

But Dan Alexander, writer for Forbes magazine and author of White House Inc: How Donald Trump turned the Presidency into a Business, says that the President does have more assets than debts but he could come across conflicts of interest when he tries to re-finance these debts.

(Image: Novelty US dollar bills printed with Donald Trump's image on. Credit: Joel Forrest / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

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