The revelations about Trump’s taxes show how the system is rigged to to give the wealthy all manner of advantages denied to ordinary people, as Seth Meyers lays out. Trump is just more shameless than most in trying to exploit the system.
Kevin Drum looks at what has been revealed by the New York Times about Trump’s income and says that the only time he made money was not from his businesses but from the time when he was on reality TV.
Trump’s story turns out to be pretty simple. After screwing everybody in sight during the ’90s, he entered 2000 in parlous shape. What saved him was The Apprentice, which earned him a boatload of money and formed the foundation of his flurry of licensing and endorsement deals over the next few years. But as revenue from the show faded, so did Trump’s finances, and since 2012 he’s been losing money every year. Long story short, Trump has lost money at pretty much everything he’s ever done. The only exception is The Apprentice and the licensing money it enabled—which probably owes more to reality show mogul Mark Burnett than to Trump himself.
Trump is a failure as a businessman and as a human being.
Trump rather reminds me of Hitler’s later career path: Chancellor of Germany to suicide in a hole-in-the ground in 12 years.