Bill Barrow, Josh Boak and Darlene Superville - The Associated Press
Media revelations that President Donald Trump paid just $ 750 in federal taxes the year he ran for election - and paid nothing in many others - threaten to undermine a pillar of his appeal among low-skilled workers and open up an avenue of attack for his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, on the eve of his first debate of the presidential campaign.
Trump has been building the image of a highly successful businessman for decades, even choosing "mogul" as his code name for the Secret Service.
According to data obtained by The New York Times, which could not be independently verified by Noticias Telemundo, Trump paid only $ 750 in federal taxes in 2016, the year he won the presidential election, and another 750 dollars in the following year, 2017, the first that he spent in full in the White House.
Asked about it during a press conference at the White House this Sunday, the president said that this information "is false."
"I actually pay taxes," he added, "the IRS doesn't treat me well, it treats me very, very badly," referring to the Internal Revenue Service.
In 10 of the previous 15 years, he did not pay anything in taxes, mainly because he reported having lost more money than he had earned, according to the aforementioned newspaper, which had access to data from tax returns for several years, information that the president tried to maintain. private in a long legal battle.
[The 10 Most Shocking Revelations About Trump And His Business From His Tax Returns]
The president, Donald Trump, in a serious mood with the United States flag in the background.Getty Images
The report came at an especially precarious time for Trump.
The Republican campaign is having trouble coping with criticism of the president's handling of the pandemic.
In addition, the publication offers Biden an easy line to attack him in the debate on Tuesday.
And since voting by mail is already open in some states and there is only a month left until elections, Trump could run out of time to turn his campaign around.
The Supreme Court gives Trump another setback and forces him to hand over data on his taxes to justice
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"Donald Trump needs this election to be about Joe Biden as a candidate," said veteran Republican consultant Alex Conant, "this keeps the focus squarely on Trump's personality and the chaos ahead of the campaign's biggest night, the debate." .
[Trump tries to hide his taxes but a judge gave him another clear order and what is at stake is presidential power]
Of course, Trump has faced - and survived - devastating revelations that would have sunk any other politician.
The most striking was the publication of a tape of
A
ccess Hollywood
in October 2016, in which he heard Trump brag about touching and kissing women without their consent.
The video was released just two days before Trump took on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in his second debate, and was at the time seen as a death sentence for his campaign.
At this point in the campaign, with many states already voting and many undecided voters left, it is not clear that any new discovery about Trump is going to make a difference.
[A court empowers Congress to access eight years of Trump tax returns]
Support for the president has remained fairly stable in recent years, according to surveys conducted during his presidency.
Yet the tax reports strike at the heart of Trump's appeal, especially among working-class voters in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, which propelled him to the presidency in 2016.
About two-thirds of white voters without a college degree supported Trump, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, compared with just 2 in 10 non-white voters without a college degree.
In fact, a Gallup poll in February 2016 showed that Republicans who wanted Trump to win the party's nomination cited his experience as a businessman as the second most important reason to support him, second only to his status as an outsider. politics.
Even today, when voters are asked about the reasons for their support, they often point to his business success as proof of his acumen.
And they often repeat the president's argument that he resigned from very good conditions to serve as president, putting that sacrifice as proof that he ran for office not out of his own interest, but because he cares about improving the lives of people like his voters.
[The president 'does not leave the goats'. He has saved a fortune in taxes… With goats!]
But the image of a man flying in private jets from one luxury property to another and paying less taxes than millions of Americans with far more modest lifestyles could provoke a pushback similar to what Republican candidate Mitt Romney faced in 2012 when he was videotaped at a private fundraising event saying that the 47% of Americans who do not pay income taxes "depend on the government" and would never vote for it.
“My job is not to worry about these people.
I will never convince them that they must take personal responsibility and take care of their lives, "said Romney.
About half of Americans don't pay income taxes, although the median payment in 2017 was nearly $ 12,200, according to the IRS.
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Democrats were quick to seize the news.
Biden's campaign online store was already selling stickers with the message “I paid more income tax than Donald Trump” on Sunday night.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted an emoji asking his followers to raise their hands "if they paid more in federal taxes than the president."
“That's why he hid his tax returns.
Because all the time I was not paying taxes.
But you do, ”added Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
And Rep. Richard Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the report highlighted the importance of the lawsuit by Democratic representatives against the Trump administration demanding access to US tax returns. President.
"This report sheds light on the vastly different experience that people with power and influence have when interacting with the Internal Revenue Service of the Department of the Treasury compared to the average American taxpayer," he said in a statement.
In addition to the news about Trump's annual payments, the newspaper found that many of his best-known businesses, including his golf courses, had reported huge losses and that, while he was fighting an uphill battle for re-election, his finances were in a tight spot. Especially complicated situation due to the "hundreds of millions of dollars in debt that will expire and that he has personally guaranteed."
Trump is also being audited due to a $ 72.9 million tax refund, which could cost him more than $ 100 million if the IRS rules against him, the newspaper noted.
Biden has recently redoubled his efforts to portray Trump as a charlatan who has lied to his working-class voters.
Instead, Biden tries to present his middle-class origins.
The Democratic leader has described the election as "Scranton versus Park Avenue," pitting the town where he grew up in Pennsylvania with Manhattan, where Trump built his corporate empire and television career.
"This clearly fits in with that contrast Biden has shown," said Joe Trippi, a veteran strategist of several Democratic presidential campaigns.
Trippi pointed out that in the face of the debate, Biden has something concrete to show when trying to win over the small group of voters still undecided.
"You win a few points with working class voters and we talked about Biden winning in places like Ohio," Trippi noted.
Conant, who served on Florida Senator Marco Rubio's 2016 campaign, said Trump became very defensive when Rubio, in a primary debate, said the mogul "would be selling watches in Manhattan" had he not inherited. million dollars from his father.
Trump waved his index finger yelling "No, no, no, no" and tried to interrupt Rubio, insisting that he had asked for a loan.
"That is not so," he said.
"As long as this campaign revolves around Trump."
"He's going to lose," Conant said.