Trump’s Tax Returns
President Trump’s tax returns, released by the New York Times two weeks ago, have revealed much about his obscure personal dealings and called into question his claims of personal wealth. Source.
One argument commonly cited by conservative voters is that President Trump is fiscally-responsible and makes a good leader on the basis of his business acumen. The new revelations surrounding President Trump’s tax avoidance and his billionaire facade are now shaking that argument to its core.
On September 27th, The New York Times published an article revealing that President Trump only paid $750 in income taxes during his first year in the White House and paid no income taxes at all during 10 out of the past 15 years. These revelations broke just days before the first presidential election, amidst a time when polling indicates that President Trump is trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden. When comparing the image President Trump first presented to the American public during his initial presidential run in 2016, we see it is vastly different than the image Trump’s tax returns now insinuate.
In 2016, during the presidential election, whenever Donald Trump spoke about himself, he spoke about how wealthy, successful, and influential he was. In an article published by The Washington Post, Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, stated how, “Trump capitalized on the power of the Trump brand, which people associate with and aspire to luxury, wealth and celebrity,” thus associating his political campaign with one wealth and power. In essence, he appealed to American citizens aspiring to live the “American Dream.” He painted himself as an outsider in a “corrupt” political system which garnered him the support of those who had lost faith in the American democracy.
With the release of President Trump’s tax returns, however, this facade has been shattered and a majority of the public has been left feeling lied to. Posts are going around on social media with testimonials of how people with commonplace jobs pay more in taxes than the President of our nation. Prominent celebrities have also taken to social media to decry the President’s fraudulent claims. With Joe Biden already leading President Trump in the polls, this is a direct hit to his campaign. It is now hard for voters who praised him for his business prowess to continue to use this as a reason to vote for him after his tax returns revealed a vast deal of debt and tax evasion and leveled him with the rest of the system they saw as “corrupt”.
While President Trump was grilled about his taxes in last week’s presidential debate, there weren’t many coherent answers to anything through the interruptions and chaos. While a majority of this election remains unusual and hard to predict, it is evident that the image of a successful business mogul President Trump used heavily in his first presidential run is no longer a viable option throughout this 2020 election.