The New York Times has published great gobs of data from information it received from Donald Trump's Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts between 1985 and 1994. At last some hard facts have been found with which to compare the hype that Trump peddled to claim for himself a spot among the most brilliant moneymakers in the universe.
What are the big takeaways from the numbers? Hold on to your hats because, as Trump might say, the news is
yuuuuge.
It turns out that young Trump's claim to great riches was, at times, completely made up. He was, instead, desperately burdened by debt that topped $1 billion. It seems that his business acumen was at best questionable, at worst fake -- as were his vast profits.
Says the Times: "Over all, Mr. Trump lost so much money that he was able to avoid paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years." The man Trump presented in his book "The Art of the Deal" was a fiction.
continued