Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

What have we actually learnt from Trump’s tax revelations?

(Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

Is anyone really surprised that Donald Trump’s tax affairs are opaque? Or that he is not as rich as he claims? Is it really all that horrifying that he has for years claimed business losses in order to offset his significant income tax liability? Does it appal us that the Trump family used a Delaware-based consulting group to pay themselves?

Of course not.

Despite clearly exhaustive efforts, the Times investigative team has failed to uncover any illegality

The New York Times’s big Trump tax files splash yesterday is therefore something of a damp squib. It is well-timed — an election is fast-approaching and the story might give Biden a good attack line in the big TV debate on Tuesday night. The reportage is quite interesting, too, especially to those of us who take a sordid interest in how the richest among us can get away with paying so little to the government.

But there is no smoking gun. Despite clearly exhaustive efforts, the Times investigative team has failed to uncover any illegality or clear wrongdoing. In fact, the sub-text of the story is a mounting frustration at the skill of Trump’s accountants in alleviating their man’s fiscal burden. The reporters seem particularly pained to note that a law passed under President Barack Obama enabled Trump to recoup more historic losses than he could otherwise have done.

As a result, the paper is reduced to mocking Trump where they think it hurts him most — by pointing out that he’s not as rich or as ‘smart’ as he says he is. Most of his business empire runs at a loss — ha ha! That line of attack gives satisfaction to media people who now hate Trump for a living. But do voters really care?

It’s arguable that such disclosures remind voters that the man in the White House is an if-not-fraudulent-at-least-somewhat-deceptive billionaire.

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