Neither of them are the paltry - in many years, non-existent - tax payments he made. It may come in third in significance, but it's really between him and the IRS. Yes, the Left is going to have a field day with the rich-fact-cat-plays-by-different-rules angle, but bigger things are at stake.
Before we get to them, though, let me say this about that: ultimately, the income tax is a morally objectionable way for the government to raise money. Now, before you conclude that oh-sheesh-I-knew-he-was-a-crank-who-wanted-to-waste-everyone's-time-with-impossible-proposals-based-on-excrutiatingly-theoretical-thinking-about-property-rights-and-the-individual-and-the-state, let me assure one and all that I realize the federal government needs a certain amount of money - for the functions specified in the Constitution. Like a military. (There, that should put to rest any suspicions that I have Rockwellian leanings.) I further understand that the national sales tax that would be the truly fair way to raise revenue is indeed for the foreseeable future a pipe dream. So we're stuck with the income tax. But we ought at least to recognize that a person's income is a form of property. And, yes, I will not retreat from my insistence that since government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, it needs to exhaustively justify taking the first penny of anyone's earned money. Even if the person is a world-class jerk, like Donald Trump. Everyone has the right to keep what is his or hers, middle-class poor or rich. Otherwise, we are acting on class envy, the cornerstone of socialism.
Far more significant, it seems to me, is what the tax records obtained by the New York Times show about the true magnitude of the VSG's wealth. It's not near what he's made it out to be and hasn't been for a long time, if ever.
The reason this is significant is that it brings to the fore all of Trump's most distasteful qualities - his mendacity and his all-consuming need to be glorified. We've of course seen these traits manifest themselves in areas of official presidential conduct, and this reinforces the fact that he'll display those traits in any realm. He cares not whether what comes out of his mouth is in any way factual. And he's not sharp enough to devise a plan to keep himself out of trouble over it.
The other most significant aspect is that can now be seen as a national security threat:
When President Trump speaks glowingly of brutal strongmen atop the governments in Turkey and the Philippines, remember that he’s making millions of dollars in these countries with the tacit approval of these authoritarian governments.
Trump’s personal finances depend on the goodwill of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Rodrigo Duterte, who are not good guys.
Trump earned $73 million from his overseas businesses during his first two years as president, according to the New York Times. About $3 million of that is from Duterte’s Philippines, and about $1 million is from Erdogan’s Turkey.
Duterte and Erdogan are known for their offenses against human rights and liberal democracy. Duterte has been excoriated for extrajudicial killings, arbitrary imprisoning, and punishment of political dissent. Erdogan has severely restricted free speech and political dissent, locking up critics, and his regime has been accused of torturing or “disappearing” dissidents.
In a 2015 interview with Breitbart News, Trump was asked about Erdogan’s regime in Turkey, and he said, “I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul, and it's a tremendously successful job. It's called Trump Towers — two towers instead of one, not the usual one, it's two. And I've gotten to know Turkey very well, and they are amazing people, they're incredible people, they have a strong leader.”
Trump is right: This is a conflict of interest. Trump should have unloaded all his foreign business operations upon coming into office, and Congress should have passed a law forcing him to.
Trump personally profits from authoritarian and unreliable regimes. If Trump took actions that upset Erdogan, such as threatening sanctions in response to human rights abuses or getting in the way of Erdogan’s designs on Kurd-controlled regions, he could be harming his own profits by provoking a response from Erdogan or simply by weakening a regime that is friendly to Trump’s business.
It’s crucial to remember that businesses in a place like Turkey are more dependent on the government than are businesses in freer economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom. State-owned banks in Turkey have been propping up businesses, especially tourism.
The worries here apply to the Philippines as well, where Duterte exercises tight control over foreign business operations. He could easily cut off Trump’s businesses if Trump were to upset him.
The president shouldn’t be in a position to lose or gain millions depending on the good favor of a foreign leader, and it’s even more corrupt when the foreign leader is himself a corrupt and abusive authoritarian.
On a related note, it seems that we're just at the outset of the Brad Parscale meltdown story. Apparently many Trumpists working to get the VSG re-elected had taken note of Parscale's profligate ways as campaign manager. And this weekend's suicide attempt / demonstration of violence toward his wife were not the first time he's pounded brewskis shirtless by the pool since his demotion:
Donald Trump's ousted campaign manager Brad Parscale began his new role focusing on 'digital strategy' with a beer in hand and enjoying the sun poolside at his $2.4 million Florida home.
The ousted Trump 2020 campaign manager retreated to his waterfront Florida home after being ditched, where he and his wife hosted friends Friday for poolside drinks.
Shirtless and with a Corona Light, Parscale looked more spring breaker than political operative, ditching his trademark blue suit for cargo shorts, shades and a stars and stripes safari hat.
But his presidential employer still loomed large over the boozy party - in the shape of a Trump 2020: Make America Great Again flag flying overhead from a flagpole in the yard.
Parscale learned his fate on Wednesday when Trump announced a shakeup of his re-election campaign on Twitter, installing former number two, Bill Stepien, as his new campaign manager.
Parscale had overseen the disastrous rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which started with a claim a million wanted to attend, had to be moved amid a row over being scheduled for Juneteenth, saw empty seats, teens on TikTik trolling Trump with hundreds of thousands of ticket applications, and ended with campaign staff and Secret Service in quarantine for two weeks after some of them were infected with coronavirus.
These are not favorable developments in a campaign season in its final weeks with the RCP average showing Biden and the VSG at 49.7 and 42.9 respectively.
Republicans have no one to blame but themselves. They hitched their wagon to a con man who had gathered around him a sleazy band of sycophants and in the process squandered much of their arsenal of superior arguments about what the United States is and how to extend its blessings more widely.
Freedom is set to shrivel yet more.
It is very late in the day.
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