While the revelation from The New York Times about Donald Trump’s years of tax fraud was a surprise, Trump’s reaction to the story was not. As always, he dismissed the longtime trusted publication as “failing,” thereby ignoring the proof that many of Trump’s businesses have failed while the NYT survives, and made some justifications that he hopes his rabid fanbase won’t understand.
Of course, it’s likely that his supporters wouldn’t care even if they did understand. After all, sexually assaulting women doesn’t seem to be a red line for them, so why should tax fraud? Trump hates who they hate – Democrats, Hillary Clinton, anyone who threatens white male supremacy – and so they will follow him off the cliff no matter what he’s done.
It’s interesting, and quite contradictory, that Trump accuses the NYT of doing “something I have never seen done before” while also saying their story is a “very old, boring, and often told hit piece on me.” Does that mean that other reporters used different methods to calculate the level of tax fraud he’s committed and come to the same conclusion? Notice, there’s no denial from Trump that he committed criminal tax fraud, just that he doesn’t like the way the NYT calculated the amount of tax fraud Trump has committed.
There’s also no denial from Trump, who claims to be a champion for the working class, that he’s lied about his business success.
Twitter wasn’t hearing Trump’s dismissals. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
