A new report from The New York Times has fuelled Democrats’ fire in their bid to get the President to hand over six years of his tax returns.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives formally asked for the public release of Trump’s personal and business tax details (which the President is legally obliged to comply with if requested) but has been refused by the US Treasury Department.
IRS tax documents revealed that Trump recorded a massive loss of $1.7 billion between 1985 and 1994 – the same time he was selling himself as a billionaire business tycoon – and avoided paying any income taxes for those nine years.
The President has since said on Twitter that “almost all real estate developers” did the same thing and that it was “sport” (pictured inset).
But Democrats aren’t having it. They want to see what his returns look like now – to investigate “possible conflicts of interest” caused by Trump’s continued ownership of his companies while he serves the public as President.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Secretary has called the request “an abuse of authority” by Democrats “for purposes of embarrassing or attacking political figures of another party”.
The battle continues.
