Trump taxes made public, whose will be next?
By newseditors // 2023-01-03
 
Now that President Trump's tax returns for several years have been made public by Democrats, who fought a years-long court battle to obtain access to them, whose tax returns will be next for the front page? (Article by Bob Unruh republished from WND.com) Nancy Pelosi's? Joe Biden's? How about Hunter Biden's? Maybe Alexandria Ocasio Cortez? or someone else? Trump said in a statement after the release, "The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it's going to lead to horrible things for so many people. The great USA divide will now grow far worse. The radical, left Democrats have weaponized … everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street! The 'Trump' tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs … and magnificent structures and enterprises." Despite Democrats' rhetoric, there was no immediate indication of anything inappropriate on Trump's tax forms. And it was famed Judge Learned Hand who once opined on tax obligations: "Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands." The Gateway Pundit said in its report the "corrupt Democrats in the House destroyed President Trump's right to privacy" by releasing the tax returns. "Unfortunately, they failed again in their goal and only proved their contempt for the US Constitution. The corrupt members of the US House led by crooked Nancy Pelosi, who released these taxes in a last-minute dig at President Trump, prepared a memo they also released." The paperwork reveal Trump's taxable income in various years ranged from zero to millions of dollars. His tax obligations ranged from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands. One revelation is that the IRS failed to audit Trump's returns in 2017 and 2018, even though it was required by law to do that. The fight over the returns dates to 2019, but the issue was present even earlier, when during his campaign in 2016 Trump declined to hand reporters copies of his taxes, enraging both them and Democrats across the landscape in Washington. NPR reported that GOP aides have argued "that Democrats' decision to release the report could have political consequences, including the potential of future partisan-led investigations into public officials' finances." "This is not what serious oversight looks like," a GOP aide told reporters, adding, "We're worried about a cycle of political retribution that might come from this and one that will make our politics even more divisive. We think folks will come to regret this. We think Democrats will come to regret this, and I think they may regret it sooner than they think." The release comes on the heels of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan committee "investigating" the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol throwing in the towel and withdrawing a subpoena for Trump to testify. The committee was partisan in that Pelosi refused to seat members nominated by the then-minority GOP. So members, instead of reviewing the entire riot, focused almost exclusively on issues for which they thought they could blame Trump. The committee now has insisted that the DOJ charge Trump with various crimes for his political statements and actions that day. The Gateway Pundit added: "Trump also blasted and fact-checked Forbes’ fake story about his tax returns," quoting, "Forbes: 'Trump’s assets are worth an estimated $4.3 billion…The former president owns real stuff-mansions, golf courses, office buildings-that throw off real cash, even if his tax returns might suggest otherwise…The D.C. hotel opened in 2016 and, by 2018, Trump had already declared tax losses of $55.5 million there, according to the Times. Still, the property is worth something. One investor offered $175 million for it before the coronavirus decimated the hotel industry. The Trumps turned that offer down. Forbes now figures the hotel is worth closer to $168 million.'" "'Wrong, just sold the Hotel for almost $400 Million. Many of their other numbers are wrong too, but by even bigger proportions. But that’s O.K., being wrong doesn’t matter to the Fake News!' Trump concluded." Read more at: WND.com