The Greanville Post
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • MEDIA FRONT
  • BEIJING DISPATCH
  • RUSSIA DESK
  • VIRTUAL UNIV
  • NATURE
  • MUST VIDEO
  • CAPITALISM
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • MEDIA FRONT
  • BEIJING DISPATCH
  • RUSSIA DESK
  • VIRTUAL UNIV
  • NATURE
  • MUST VIDEO
  • CAPITALISM
The Greanville Post
Home ABOMINATIONS Trump’s tax returns and the parasitism of the financial oligarchy

Trump’s tax returns and the parasitism of the financial oligarchy

by Patrice de Bergeracpas October 8, 2020
October 8, 2020
Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrint this post.

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.

EDITED AND HOSTED BY THE GREANVILLE POST


Patrick Martin
WSWS.ORG


Splendid analysis by Patrick Martin, which we endorse 100%. 

Few con artists have attained the degree of power and influence that Trump has achieved, despite his almost transparent fraudulence and ineptitude. Yet Trump is a product of the system, in demonstrable ways the unwitting creation of the utterly corrupt Democrats, who now pose as his ideological enemies.



Dateline: 29 September 2020

The detailed analysis of the tax returns of President Donald Trump, spread across the front page of Monday’s New York Times, is more than an exposure of the corrupt gangster who lives in the White House. It is an indictment of the American ruling class as a whole, of the super-rich families who monopolize the country’s wealth, exploit the working people and dominate its politics, including the Democratic and the Republican parties.

The Times gained access to 20 years of personal and business tax returns that provide exhaustive details about the financial manipulations conducted by the Trump Organization. The family holding company used hundreds of subsidiaries and shell companies to evade the payment of taxes, incur paper losses that were used to offset real income, and ensure the never-ending enrichment of Trump and his children despite the fact that their empire of real estate, casinos and golf clubs was largely unprofitable.

As the report declared, “ultimately, Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life.” His long-running NBC reality program, The Apprentice, was far more profitable than his actual business activities. His bankruptcies and reverses have long been known, but the Times account gives a picture, in granular detail, of how the tax system—set up and run by both Democratic and Republican administrations—allowed him to amass and maintain great wealth despite his generally disastrous forays in business.

The Times account does add another dimension to the explanation of the response of the Trump administration to the coronavirus crisis. Given his vast holdings in real estate, hotels and golf clubs, Trump had a direct and immediate financial interest in demanding the reopening of the economy and the resumption of travel, business meetings and sporting events, regardless of the cost in human lives. In this he was not alone, but rather spoke for the interests of his class.

The details in the newspaper account—that Trump paid zero income taxes in 10 of the 15 years before he ran for president; paid $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017, about the same amount as a waitress working at the minimum wage; wrote off $75,000 in haircuts as a business expense; and steered hundreds of thousands in “consulting fees” into the pockets of his adult children—are damning. But it is hardly surprising to see it proven in black and white that Donald Trump is a phony and a fraud. Millions of working people have long recognized him as an unscrupulous swindler in both business and politics.

Two years ago, the Times published an equally detailed examination of how Trump’s father manipulated the tax system to pass on the bulk of his wealth to his son Donald while paying an effective tax rate of only 10 percent, even though the official estate tax was then 55 percent. The WSWS commented at the time, “With its detailed exposure of the Trump fortune, the Times has unwittingly confirmed the insistence of socialists that the continued existence of a parasitic oligarchy is incompatible with the most basic social and democratic rights of the vast majority of the population.”

Corruption and tax evasion, perhaps less crude but in some cases on an even larger scale, are commonplace throughout the American ruling elite. According to IRS figures, the effective tax rate on the transfer of inherited wealth is less than 4 percent, compared to the average tax rate for working people of 18–19 percent. Decades ago, before her conviction for tax evasion, Manhattan hotel heiress Leona Helmsley sneered, “Only the little people pay taxes.” That serves today as the motto of the entire financial aristocracy.

Everyone knows that the IRS makes it a point to prey upon workers. Woe unto the teacher or auto worker who is accused of underpaying the IRS, even as the agency regularly turns a blind eye to massive tax-avoidance schemes like those run by the Trump family. Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman have described how, for decades, the US government continuously slashed taxes for the wealthy and destroyed enforcement mechanisms, with the deliberate outcome of expanding social inequality.

"A central aspect of Trump’s financial flim-flam over many decades is that he has taken advantage of tax laws enacted by both Democrats and Republicans for the deliberate purpose of enabling such chicanery and minimizing the tax burden on the financial elite..."

A central aspect of Trump’s financial flim-flam over many decades is that he has taken advantage of tax laws enacted by both Democrats and Republicans for the deliberate purpose of enabling such chicanery and minimizing the tax burden on the financial elite. It was under the Obama administration in 2010 that the IRS authorized a payment of $72.9 million to Trump, supposedly as a refund of “overpayments.”

At least until he launched his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015, Trump bribed Democrats and Republicans alike with “campaign contributions” and was rewarded with loopholes such as the favored treatment of real estate losses in the Obama administration bailout of Wall Street in 2009.

Among the politicians benefiting from Trump’s largesse over the years were Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, his current opponents. He gave campaign contributions on 17 occasions to the two New York Democratic senators, Charles Schumer, now the Senate Democratic leader, and Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential contest. None of this politically inconvenient history appears in the Times account of Trump’s tax evasion.

Apologists for the Democratic Party, particularly in the camp of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), may see the Times article as a brilliantly timed masterstroke. They no doubt hope that the conclusive exposure of Trump as a corrupt fraud—unlike the release of the sex scandal transcripts in 2016—will succeed in sinking his campaign.

It is possible that the exposure of Trump’s blatant tax evasion will cost him some votes. But this exposure does not change the reactionary character of the Biden campaign.

A central feature of this campaign is the suggestion that Trump is an agent or patsy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that his administration has undermined US “national security” interests in the Middle East, Central Asia, and more generally, in relation to both Russia and China. Many media commentators immediately seized on the fact that Trump paid far more taxes to foreign governments, including India, the Philippines, Turkey and Panama, than he did to the US government.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the most vociferous advocates of the anti-Russia campaign, was quick to sound this theme again in response to the publication of the details of Trump’s taxes and personal finances. Noting the Times’ conclusion that Trump had accumulated $400 million in losses since taking office, including $300 million in loans that would come due during a second term in the White House if he should be reelected, she declared that Trump’s taxes revealed a “national security issue.”

Even though the Times admitted that the tax returns showed no business income from Russia, Pelosi connected Trump to Moscow: “The question is what does Putin have on the president politically, personally, financially in every way that the president would try to undermine our commitment to NATO, give away the store to Russia and Syria … he says he likes Putin and Putin likes him. Well, what’s the connection? We’ll see.”

Such grotesque McCarthy-style attacks on Trump’s alleged master in Moscow contribute to a political atmosphere justifying an explosion of American militarism. It moreover simply ignores the equal role of American banks in financing Trump’s swindles.

Moreover, the use of a scandal to unseat Trump—assuming that this is the outcome—does nothing to change the political climate in the United States. With or without Trump, the intensification of the social crisis—for which the Democrats have no answer—will provide fuel for the development of fascist and authoritarian movements.

It is impossible to defend democratic rights and defeat Trump’s drive towards authoritarian rule through the Democratic Party, which defends the capitalist system of which Trump is a product.

Trump’s tax returns paint a portrait of a ruling class totally enmeshed in corruption and criminality. The oligarchs generate their wealth through shuffling around money, based on the provision of endless amounts of cash by the central banks. Trump’s gaudy and tasteless palaces, with the look of bordellos, are the product of a whole period of American capitalism dominated by swindling, speculation and fraud, creating nothing of value besides ever-greater heaps of debt.

Trump is not the exception; he is the rule. The entire ruling class owes its social existence to various forms of criminal activity, whose victims are inevitably workers. The expropriation of this financial oligarchy is an urgent social necessity.


Patrick Martin is a senior editorial analyst with wsws.org, a Marxian publication. 
 

RevisShielded: 19,285

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

 

black-horizontal


Think!

^0The corporate media will never present you with this kind of information.

Nothing that contradicts the empire's lying narrative is allowed.

Support our citizens media. The only media you need.


 

RevisShielded: 19,285
All comments subject to anti-hacking filters.
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail
previous post
Serious questions remain about shady ‘PeaceData’ website blamed on Russian trolls
next post
Freedom Rider: Liberal Sympathy for Trump

Related Articles

How Billionaires Transfer Blame to Others

January 20, 2021

Biden Sold-Out Totally

January 20, 2021

The American Brumaire

January 19, 2021

Baghdad on the Potomac: Welcome to the Blue Zone

January 19, 2021

Biden’s Batshit Bullshit

January 19, 2021

Bombshell: Trump Declassifies All FBI Documents in Russia Probe

January 19, 2021

CNN FREAKS That YouTubers Have Larger Audiences, Calls For Deplatforming

January 19, 2021

Trump’s not-so-secret art of containing China

January 18, 2021

What ‘Democracy’ Is Under Attack? Notes From The Edge Of...

January 18, 2021

America Has The Tinder To IGNITE Social Uprising – Chris...

January 18, 2021

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Look it up here

L’Internationale—sung by Chinese people. If this doesn’t move you, nothing will.

We are in an ACUTE crisis. Please help!



Always stay in touch! Sign up for free Greanville Post bulletin here.

The sons and daughters of liberty and justice may march again soon.

Why Liberals (and centrist extremists) hate leftists.

“Liberals hate leftists because leftists are a constant reminder that liberals are not the thing they pretend to be.” — ⁦@caitoz⁩ https://t.co/LsXp3AmJuq

— Ryan Knight 🌹 (@ProudSocialist) September 27, 2020

NOTE: The quote is by Caitlin Johnstone.

MORE PAGES OF INTEREST

SPECIAL SECTIONS
ARMAGEDDON
AUTHORS
WORLD DESK
PEOPLE’S HISTORY
REPUBLICATION RIGHTS

Gateways

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

If you haven’t read this, you don’t know China.

How Many People Know that Iran is a Socialist Nation? Not many. But in this fact-packed, 330 pp book, noted geopolitical analyst Ramin Mazaheri proves that this is exactly the case.

“Iran and its unique socialist system is one of the greatest untold, even hidden, stories of our era. Ramin Mazaheri’s book “Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism” is a detailed and very serious compilation of the author’s analyses, published by various progressive outlets in the West and now re-edited into this powerful and thought-provoking volume..”
—Andre Vltchek 

Get it today!
Available in electronic and print editions
Kindle $7.50 • Print $24.49 prime

 

Criminal elites created it. But YOUR willful ignorance perpetuates it.

Oliver Stone: The Media is the Enemy

oliverstone“Our citizens should know the urgent facts...but they don’t because our media serves imperial, not popular interests. They lie, deceive, connive and suppress what everyone needs to know, substituting managed news misinformation and rubbish for hard truths..."—Oliver Stone

The people & corps who have been murdering our planet

A carefully compiled database of climate deniers—individuals, politicians, corporations
(Click image)

TGP is part of The Voice of Nature Network

VNN-wolf-logo-4

The innocence around us.

Avenger Network / Allies

  • BLACK AGENDA REPORT
  • CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
  • Center for Global Research
  • CHINA RISING
  • COUNTERCURRENTS
  • ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
  • F. WILLIAM ENGDAHL
  • FORT RUSS NEWS
  • GLOBAL INDEPENDENT ANALYTICS
  • JASON HIRTHLER
  • JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE
  • JIMMY DORE's Fountain of Truth
  • JOHN PILGER
  • LAND DESTROYER
  • LEE CAMP (Redacted)
  • MARK TALIANO—Voices from Syria
  • MINTPRESS NEWS
  • NEWS FROM THE UNDERGROUND / MARK CRISPIN MILLER
  • PR WATCH
  • RESUMEN LATINOAMERICANO (ENGLISH ED.)
  • SILENT CROW NEWS
  • THE POLEMICIST—Jim Kavanagh
  • THE SAKER
  • TITANIC LIFEBOAT ACADEMY

Truth, at last.

“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

henry_kissinger__secretary_of_state__washington__dc__june_2__1976

― Henry Kissinger

This is what the plutocracy that Kissinger serves really thinks of the military. All that praise and worshipping on the media is just a thick curtain of hypocrisy to maintain morale among the deceived imperial troopers.

It ennobles our lives.

Política y cultura hispánica


Nuestra nueva sección en castellano.
Haga click en la imagen.

 

READ OUR DISCLAIMER

DISCLAIMER

CLICK HERE TO READ

THE GREANVILLE POST

Disclaimer: The contents of articles published on The Greanville Post are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Greanville Post, a publication of The Voice of Nature Network, Inc., (VNN), a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) corporation, will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. The Greanville Post grants permission to cross-post original The Greanville Post articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of The Greanville Post articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: greanville@gmail.com

THE GREANVILLE POST contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues, and the furtherance of peace and social justice, the defence of our planetary ecosystems, and the prevention and eventual elimination of human abuse, exploitation,.and cruelty toward any and all non-human species The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.

For media inquiries contact us at greanville@gmail.com 


CONTACTING US & MORE


ABOUT TGP/CONTACTING US
That’s easy. Just click on the links below.
• ABOUT TGP
• CONTACTING US

Did you miss it?

  • How Billionaires Transfer Blame to Others January 20, 2021
  • Biden Sold-Out Totally January 20, 2021
  • The American Brumaire January 19, 2021
  • Baghdad on the Potomac: Welcome to the Blue Zone January 19, 2021
  • Biden’s Batshit Bullshit January 19, 2021
  • Jan. 6 Was An Inside Job January 19, 2021
  • Bombshell: Trump Declassifies All FBI Documents in Russia Probe January 19, 2021
  • CNN FREAKS That YouTubers Have Larger Audiences, Calls For Deplatforming January 19, 2021
  • 9/11 Was the Prelude. 1/6 Is the Holy Grail January 18, 2021
  • Trump’s not-so-secret art of containing China January 18, 2021
  • Just Because The System Is Stacked Against You Doesn’t Mean The Universe Is January 18, 2021
  • What ‘Democracy’ Is Under Attack? Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix January 18, 2021

Kitten & Golden Retriever Friendship

If you don’t, who will?

Words from an Irish patriot—

CATEGORIES – TOPICS

GATEWAYS

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

ARCHIVES

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign

Translate »