Trump 59: The Walls Are Closing In, So Naturally He's Running Another Grifting Scheme

[Dandruff]

9 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Merry Griftmas:

 

They look like litter to me.

[Ozlsn]

32 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Merry Griftmas:

 

So someone of the team realised they could grift more if they offered an actual physical product as his market wasn't comfortable in the NFT space? Or just an attempt to also camouflage the money laundering?

[Dandruff]

2 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

So someone of the team realised they could grift more if they offered an actual physical product as his market wasn't comfortable in the NFT space? Or just an attempt to also camouflage the money laundering?

I'm (unfortunately) now picturing groups of MAGAts sitting around a table, checking parts with one hand while trading cards with the other.  Talking about their hero and making wishes for the future.

[GreyhoundFan]

Such a warm and loving Christmas message. Just kidding, it’s from TFG, so it’s predictably nasty.

 

[Dandruff]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Such a warm and loving Christmas message. Just kidding, it’s from TFG, so it’s predictably nasty.

 

Merry Christmas to proper grammar, usage, punctuation, and capitalization. 

Not Merry Christmas to him, but he would know that already since he's clairvoyant.

Interesting that he's now referring to himself in quotes.  A bit of dissociation, perhaps, as truth and justice intrude upon his little world?

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

20 hours ago, Dandruff said:

They look like litter to me.

Remember when trading cards came with the stick of really hard, icky tasting bubble gum that you chewed anyway? I think they should market these with a stick that is red, white, and blue and tastes like cigarette smoke and PBR. Or just go right to it and include an unfiltered menthol cig in every packet. (I wonder which card will be the “elusive” one that will make everyone buy 30 - 50 packs before they land a complete set.) 

Clairvoyant? If Trump is clairvoyant then he would have been able to see the Jan. 6 insurrection was doomed to not only fail but also give rise to the committee that has now turned its findings to the DOJ for criminal review so he never would have sent out the tweets that started it all. Or moreso, if he was clairvoyant he would have taken Daddy’s money, invested it properly, and have a much larger amount of wealth than now in legitimate business ventures and not be facing the lawsuits and potential criminal proceedings that he is now facing. 

[Ozlsn]

2 hours ago, AlmostSavedAtTacoBell said:

Or moreso, if he was clairvoyant he would have taken Daddy’s money, invested it properly, and have a much larger amount of wealth than now in legitimate business ventures and not be facing the lawsuits and potential criminal proceedings that he is now facing. 

And gotten therapy.

[Dandruff]

5 hours ago, AlmostSavedAtTacoBell said:

Remember when trading cards came with the stick of really hard, icky tasting bubble gum that you chewed anyway?

Yes.  The cards would have been easier to chew than that gum and probably tasted a lot better.

5 hours ago, AlmostSavedAtTacoBell said:

I think they should market these with a stick that is red, white, and blue and tastes like cigarette smoke and PBR. Or just go right to it and include an unfiltered menthol cig in every packet. (I wonder which card will be the “elusive” one that will make everyone buy 30 - 50 packs before they land a complete set.)

How about some Trump-flavored (gag) chewing tobacco?  They could pretend they're tasting victory all day.

[thoughtful]

6 hours ago, AlmostSavedAtTacoBell said:

I think they should market these with a stick that is red, white, and blue and tastes like cigarette smoke and PBR.

🤔  Pabst Blue Ribbon?

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

He sounds extra dumb today:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh yeah, I believe him. /s

 

[onekidanddone]

Is it a good sign or a bad omen that we haven’t had any ‘Truth’ from him today.  
This forum has been awfully quiet today 

[onekidanddone]

Okay I’m getting edgy and anxious. Radio silence for a few days. What’s up?

[Xan]

8 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Okay I’m getting edgy and anxious. Radio silence for a few days. What’s up?

No, he's still out there posting.

Spoiler

Plus, he's reposted stuff from other people.  Donny doesn't shut up for long.

[Xan]

Donny hasn't returned to Twitter but he's posting through his mouthpiece, Liz Harrington, about the tax release.  

Magnificent structures?  Proudly successful?  The man can't say anything without puffing himself up.

I haven't seen anything online yet about links to the released tax forms.  He apparently paid very little or nothing some years and took millions in losses.  I doubt that it will bother any of his followers.  They prefer not to pay taxes as well.  

 

[Jana814]

I’m happy they are releasing his tax returns. He thinks he’s above all laws & he shouldn’t have to release them. 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Jana814

[WiseGirl]

"Trump’s tax returns raise questions over his business operations, loans he gave his children and more" CNN "Returns show he held foreign bank accounts while in office"Also "Committee found IRS failed to conduct mandatory "

[Jana814]

1 hour ago, WiseGirl said:

"Trump’s tax returns raise questions over his business operations, loans he gave his children and more" CNN "Returns show he held foreign bank accounts while in office"Also "Committee found IRS failed to conduct mandatory "

I’m not surprised by any of this. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"What we’ve learned from Trump’s tax returns"

 

Quote

Thousands of pages of Donald Trump’s tax returns shed some light on his extensive business empire, both before and during his presidency, as well as his changing fortunes during his time in the Oval Office.

While Trump endured sizable financial losses in the two years before entering the White House, he had an adjusted gross income of $15.8 million during his first three years as president when he paid $1.1 million in federal income tax.

In his final year in office, 2020, he paid no income tax, according to his tax returns that were released Friday by the House Ways and Means Committee. Democrats spent years pursuing the financial documents that previous presidents and White House candidates voluntarily released.

Here is some of what we learned when the returns were first made public Friday.

1. Trump’s fortunes rose and fell, as he aggressively reported losses.

Throughout his campaign and presidency, Trump earned money from a wide variety of sources, including real estate, his earlier career as a TV personality, and a multitude of businesses such as golf clubs and wine. His gross income ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. But he reported deductions to reduce that income — and the taxes he would owe on it. From 2015 to 2020, he reported a negative adjusted gross income in four out of six years. His reported income ranged from negative $32 million to $24 million.

2. The Trumps contributed inconsistently to charity.

Trump’s charitable contributions declined over the course of his presidency. He donated $1.8 million in 2017 and about half a million dollars in each of the next two years. In 2020, as many nonprofits intensified their calls for donations as they scrambled to help victims of the coronavirus pandemic and the associated unemployment, the Trumps reported giving no money to charity.

Trump repeatedly promised that he would donate his $400,000 annual salary for each year that he served as president, and he generally contributed his salary to federal agencies. IRS rules say that taxpayers who give money to government agencies “solely for public purposes” can deduct those gifts as charitable contributions on their tax returns. Trump’s failure to take any charitable deduction in 2020 suggests that he didn’t donate his presidential salary that year — and that if he donated his salary in the two prior years, that represented most of his charitable giving each year.

A spokesman for Trump did not directly respond to questions from The Washington Post about Trump’s lack of a charitable deduction for his salary donations in 2020 but did note that Trump previously said he gave money from his salary that year to the National Park Service and to the Department of Health and Human Services’ coronavirus response efforts.

3. Trump has bank accounts in several foreign countries and earned money in many nations while he was president.

Trump said in his tax filings that he had completed paperwork required of any American who has a financial account in another country worth more than $10,000. At various times, he said, he had such accounts in China, Ireland, the United Kingdom and St. Martin. He reports earning money in a far longer list of foreign countries.

4. Why did Trump pay any taxes at all? Thank the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Trump reported such substantial losses from his businesses that in many years, his tax bill would have been $0 under ordinary rules for income taxes. But the United States has a system called the Alternative Minimum Tax that is meant to make sure very rich people don’t get away with paying an inordinately low tax bill. In Trump’s case, this alternate calculation method required him to pay at least some taxes in more years than he otherwise would have, by making him add some of his deductions back into his income. The Trumps are among about 200,000 taxpayers subject to this method of calculating their taxes.

5. The Trumps supported the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

On the Trumps’ tax returns, the opening pages read, “Occupation: President” and “Spouse occupation: First Lady.”

While Americans generally can’t choose what use the government puts their tax dollars toward, there is an exception: Every taxpayer gets to choose whether $3 of their taxes go into the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

Candidates for president can tap into this fund only if they agree to cap their own campaign fundraising in exchange for receiving federal funding. Trump did not participate; no major candidate has since 2008.

But he and his wife, Melania, did both choose to put $3 into the pot for future candidates to use — making them among only about 4 percent of Americans who chose to contribute to the fund in 2020.

Want to know more? Read more about the release of the returns in our coverage here. Check out the congressional committee’s summary of their findings. And below, find the top numbers from each year of Trump’s taxes.

2015

Adjusted gross income: -$31,756,435

Tax based on income and AMT: $2,127,670

Final tax bill after credits: $641,931

Total income: -$31,736,841

2016

Adjusted gross income: -$32,409,674

Tax based on income and AMT: $2,234,725

Final tax bill after credits: $750

Total income: -$32,190,169

2017

Adjusted gross income: -$12,916,948

Tax based on income and AMT: $7,435,857

Final tax bill after credits: $750

Total income: — $12,819,400

2018

Adjusted gross income: $24,395,093

Tax based on income and AMT: $8,356,232

Final tax bill after credits: $999,466

Total income: $24,395,093

2019

Adjusted gross income: $4,380,714

Tax based on income and AMT: $558,780

Final tax bill after credits: $133,445

Total income: $4,443,503

2020

Adjusted gross income: -$4,795,757

Tax based on income and AMT: 0

Final tax bill after credits: 0

Total income: -$4,694,058

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Look, a grifting subscription!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I wonder how much he charges for each photo op.

 

[Dandruff]

6 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Look, a grifting subscription!

 

An exclusive club of people who have no clue when they're being massively ripped off?