Suitable tribute to the White House taxpayer
Americans will remember the two numbers that sum up the Trump tax soap opera
If you had to reduce the roiling Donald Trump tax soap opera to two numbers, it would be these: $2.1bn and $750.The first is the president’s post-coronavirus net worth, as calculated by Forbes. The second is the annual tax that Trump paid in 2016 and 2017, according to a devastating investigation published in The New York Times.Just to put that number in perspective, US workers paid an average of $12,200 income tax in 2017, according to the Internal Revenue Service.How the Trump Organisation’s loyal tax masseuses manipulate the conglomerate’s apparently considerable losses in the noble art of getting away with paying as little as possible is irrelevant. Americans will remember those two numbers.Some will be generous in their praise because beating the house is, after all, ingrained in the American Way. But many will not.Still, $1,500 is better than a kick in the jacksie. This is what the federal government could have spent Trump’s $1,500 on: 72 seconds flight time on Air Force One ...
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