On October 3, The New York Times,published a
14,000 word expose on the fraud that is Donald John tRUMP.
“President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the
1990's including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased
the fortune he received from his parents...” (1)
The details, gleaned from tens of thousands of
documents, receipts, tax records and interviews reveal the man behind
the curtain who, like the character in Oz was, in real life, a
simple carnival barker.
As a former motion picture projectionist, I know
something about projecting images in space and in time. So potent
are these images that it has been observed by more that a few that
life in America is like a movie; someone will remark that something
that happened feels like a scene in a film or, as Paul McCartney once
observed about the “Pretty nurse selling poppies from a
tray...she feel's as if she's in a play...she is anyway” . In
America, the line between fact and fiction, between what is real and
what is not has blurred so much that we have confused celebrity with
substance, electing first an actor and now a deeply flawed and
corrupt “business celebrity” president of the United States.
We did this because we bought the image. We paid no
attention to the 'man behind the curtain'. We did this because in
America we are taught to celebrate the celebrity. We are taught that
wealth creates substance. So Donald John tRUMP was able to parlay an
image of great wealth—and, therefore, accomplishment—as well as
his ubiquitous celebrity into national political power.
This is why he is so defensive about anyone who
questions his wealth. Once, at a roast, those present were allowed
to criticize his wife, his children, his hobbies but he forbade
anyone to say anything negative about his presumed wealth. Indeed,
tRUMP sued David Cay Johnston over an article he wrote thirty years
ago contending that you, the reader, are probably wealthier than
tRUMP. Johnston, invoking legal discovery demanded the records.
Disgustus withdrew his lawsuit. This maneuver is outranked only by
tRUMP's lawsuit against comedian Bill Maher for his claim that Mary
Trump found an orangutan more appealing that presumed father Fred.
Disgustus got the better of that confrontation but, then, we only
have Mary's version to rely upon. In delicious irony Disgustus was
forced to produce his birth certificate. But shades if illegitimacy
hound anthing involving a tRUMP. In any case, everything about
Disgustus now depends upon the illusion of wealth. It is his gateway
to celebrity and now political power. Without it, he is what he
is—nothing; an Orangutan without robes.
After admitting its role in the creation of the myth,
the Times expose makes the first real effort by a major
newspaper to set—albeit belatedly—the record straight.
“The
Times's investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax
returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the
equivalent today of at least 413 million from his father's real
estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this
day.” (2). Indeed, at the age
of 3, Disgustus was getting $200,000 a year from his dad. He was a
millionaire by age 8. By the time he was in college he was getting
over a million dollars a year from business owned by his father. The
tale told by Disgustus that all he got from his dad was a million
bucks, which he had to repay with interest, is a boldface lie.
More
damning, the report revealed, was that “Much of this
money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes.
He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of
dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show.
Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax
deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy
to undervalue his parents' real estate holdings by hundreds of
millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill
when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.”
“ The
Trumps paid a total of 52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax records
show.”(3) The tax should have
been at 55 percent, or over 500 million dollars.
Disgustus chronicler David Cay Johnston, himself a tax
expert, has said that tRUMP has a long history of routinely
undervaluing properties when the tax bill comes due as well as
overvaluing his properties when seeking loans from commercial
banks. Through combinations of tax and bank fraud, the tRUMPs have
made millions.
Disgustus was aided by his father in many other dubious
ways. There was a “previously unreported flood of loans”(4)
given to the son, many of which were never paid back. In the
1990's as many of his enterprises were going bust, dad stepped in to
bail out his son.
“What
didn't fail was the Trump safety net. Just as Donald Trump's
finances were crumbling, family partnerships and companies
dramatically increased distributions to him and his siblings.
Between 1989 and 1992, tax records show, four entities created by
Fred Trump to support his children paid Donald Trump today's
equivalent of $8.3 million...
“Such
was the case with the rescue mission at his son's Trump's Castle
casino. Donald Trump had wildly overspent on renovations, leaving
the property dangerously low on operating cash. Sure enough, neither
Trump's Castle nor its owner had the necessary funds to make an $18.4
million bond payment due in December 1990.
“On
Dec. 17, 1990, Fred Trump dispatched Howard Snyder, a trusted
bookkeeper, to Atlantic City with a $3.35 million check. Mr. Snyder
bought $3.35 million worth of casino chips and left without placing a
bet. Apparently, even this infusion wasn't sufficient, because that
same day Fred Trump wrote a second check to Trump's Castle, for
$150,000, bank records show.
“With
this ruse—it was an illegal $3.5 million loan under New Jersey
gaming laws, resulting in a $65,000 civil penalty—Donald Trump
narrowly avoided defaulting on his bonds”. (4)
“The
most overt fraud”, according
to the Times, “was All County Building Supply and
Maintenance, a company formed by the Trump family in 1992. All
County's ostensible purpose was to be the purchasing agent for Fred
Trump's buildings, buying everything from boilers to cleaning
supplies. It did no such thing, records and interviews show.
Instead, All County siphoned millions of dollars from Fred Trump's
empire by simply marking up purchases already made by his employees.
Those millions, effectively untaxed gifts, then flowed to the All
County's owners—Donald Trump, his siblings and cousin. Fred Trump
then used the padded All County receipts to justify bigger rent
increases for thousands of tenants....
“All
told, the Times documented 295 streams of revenue that Fred Trump
created over five decades to enrich his son.” (5) These
included myriad bogus positions Donald theoretically held within the
organization, including property manager, public relations
consultant, purchasing agent...
The Times article cites chapter and verse concerning
frauds in purchasing and billing, fraudulent transfers of money from
father to children, undervaluing properties when it came time to pay
real estate taxes or transfer wealth. But there are other dimensions
to the fraud that is Donald J. tRUMP not discussed here including the
cost to business partners and banks over his several bankruptcies,
defrauding clients and customers, and stiffing contractors when it
came time to pay his bills.
Red flags should have gone up when Disgustus
declared—after proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire—his
Atlantic City casinos bankrupt in the early 90's. With all that
wealth, why could he simply not bail them out? The truth is that his
father tried but, realizing how hopeless was the position his son had
created, simply cut them lose lest they cause further damage to the
'empire'.
But the country has quickly moved on the the Kavanaugh
hearings and subsequent outrageous allowing Disgustus to demure that
all this is “old news”; for those who have ears a classic
non-denial denial.
Our little Lord Fauntleroy has indeed made a pig's
breakfast of everything he has touched. What has bailed him out has
been the eternal patience of his father, the forgiveness of the banks
and other creditors, and the family's remarkable ability to avoid the
scrutiny of the I.R.S. Disgustus has been revealed for what he is:
not simply a misbegotten charlatan, but a blood-sucking parasite in
constant search of another host.
This leads us, in due course to Moscow and the Russian
mafia, luxurious hotels and expensive prostitutes.
“An
Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”
Impeach and Imprison.
_______________
- Barstow, David., Craig, Susanne., and Beuttner Russ. “Trump Took Part In Suspect Schemes to Evade Tax Bills: Behind the Myth of a Self-Made Billionaire, a Vast Inheritance From His Father” The New York Times. Page 1. See also pages A10-A17.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid. page A12.
- Ibid.
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