Unpaid Taxes & Fiery Debate: Trump’s Rocky Election Journey

From dealing with allegations of not paying taxes and handling Joe Biden in the debate, President Trump’s election journey doesn’t look that pretty this year.

The U.S 2020 elections are just around the corner and the first presidential debate took place on Tuesday, September 29th, a few days after the New York Times report. So, we wanted to update you on what is in the report and what went down in the debate and also, how is President Donald Trump’s election journey going so far.

The Report

According to the New York Times, Trump paid no federal income taxes in 11 out of 18 years the newspaper examined. How is that possible? Initially, Trump paid $95 million in taxes over the 18 years but he managed to recover most of that money by claiming and receiving a $72.9 million federal tax refund. The Times said that he pocketed $21.2 million in state and local refunds. The President had paid just $750 in taxes in both 2016 and 2017.

The report said that Trump has financed an extravagant lifestyle with the use of business expenses. Also, many of Trump’s best-known businesses are making losses for him. The report also said that lobbyists, foreign governments and politicians have poured considerable amounts of money on his properties. This has raised questions about its propriety and legality.

The report added that Trump appears to be responsible for $421 million in loans, most of which will come due within four years. In addition, a $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower in New York will come due in 2022.

So, this is bad news. This report portrays Trump as a not-so-good President and on top of that, he refused to show his tax returns. This report is bad news on its own, however, the timing of the publication of the report added to Trump’s woes. This report came just before the first presidential debate of 2020.

The Debate

The debate was widely watched because everyone was eagerly waiting how Trump will defend himself about the Times report.

When the moderator of the debate, Chris Wallace of Fox News, asked him questions about the Times report, Trump said he had paid, “millions of dollars. And you’ll get to see it”. However, there is no evidence to support this statement made by Trump. Since he became a candidate in 2015, Trump hasn’t released any returns.

Also, Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is the candidate chosen by the Democrats to run against Trump for presidency, said that Trump will be the first president to have fewer jobs at the end of his presidency. When Trump became the President in 2017, the U.S had 146 million jobs. However, the number declined to 141 million as of August employment data, according to the government data. This is mostly due to the COVID-19 closures and the recession.

The President also failed to condemn the white supremacy groups that have turned up to protests in the U.S. He also went on to say how the coronavirus death toll would have been worse if Biden was president and that the economy would have been battered more.

So, the first presidential debate was fiery but we still don’t know a lot of things because Trump didn’t give direct answers to the questions put forth by the moderator. Even though the report and the debate doesn’t do much to Trump’s reputation, we have to wait and see what the future holds as there are still two more presidential debates to go.

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