Rachel Maddow gets ahold of Trump's 2005 tax returns

[Mori Chu]

So if you haven't heard this story yet, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC hyped that she had gotten ahold of a leaked copy of Donald Trump's 2005 1040 tax form. She displayed and discussed it on air the other night. In general there were no "bombshell" things in it, so many felt that Maddow's stunt was overhyped and underdelivered.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... tacle.html

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politi ... story.html

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/t ... dow-236066

The White House itself seemed to get wind that these forms were out in the wild and tried to get out ahead of the story by releasing its own statement about the taxes before Maddow went to air.

Here's a Twitter thread arguing that it is still newsworthy. Among the interesting things here are that Trump paid a lot of the tax he did pay because of a rule called AMT, the adjusted minimum tax. And currently the Trump administration is discussing reducing or removing the AMT. Hmm, isn't that convenient.



What do y'all think about this whole brouhaha?

[ShelC]

I can't stand Maddow and it seemed like a bait and switch for tune-ins.

[In2ition]

Not much was learned here. It was hyped up as a gotcha, but seemed like on Maddow was got. Still don't believe it shows everything, bit I honestly don't care about his taxes. I just care about how much I'm paying.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Donald Trump married Melania Knaus in 2005. She had been a permanent resident since 2001. She became a US citizen in 2006. Part of the US naturalization checklist the last 5 years tax returns OR the last 3 years tax returns if married to a US citizen, which would be in Melania's case:

2003 single filing...
2004 single filing...
2005 joint filing with DJT

Melania's citizenship depended on a squeaky clean join tax filing in 2005. This is why Trump, yesterday, leaked his own (partial) 2005 1040 form. It was the only year he was forced to play by the rules.

This was a clear attempt to game the US public and media, distract from all the other shit that's going on, and make himself look as awesome as possible to his base.

If this was a 'leak' by a 'concerned 3rd party' there's no way it would be so beneficial to Trump.

[Nodack]

And just two pages.

[Indy]

Not much was learned here. It was hyped up as a gotcha, but seemed like on Maddow was got. Still don't believe it shows everything, bit I honestly don't care about his taxes. I just care about how much I'm paying.

It isn't about how he games the system and doesn't pay for things like the military. It is about where his financial obligations are.

[Indy]

And just two pages.

That were stamped "Client Copy"

[Mori Chu]

The most interesting thing I gleaned from the 2005 Trump tax returns is that he pays most of his tax due to the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT), a tax rule that Trump currently wants to get rid of. This would eliminate much of his tax burden and allow him to pay almost zero tax for all of his businesses.

[Superbone]

I guarantee you when Trump's 4 years are up (if he makes it that long), the laws are going to be more favorable to him and his businesses than they were before his reign (of terror).

[Cap]

That makes him smart. :-/

[Superbone]

That makes him smart. :-/

Yeah, that should be the agenda for all POTUSes. "Don't ask what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you." Right?

[In2ition]

Wasn't that how the Kennedys made and kept their family fortune(along with bootlegging)? I thought I heard that the family doesn't pay income tax, as a family member wrote into law a provision that only applied to their family, releasing them from such a burden.

[Nodack]

I haven't heard of that. Can you link the article?