Editor’s note: In this article on the latest “scandal” to hit the Donald Trump Presidential campaign, XYZ contributor Eh?nonymous expresses his pessimism that the leak published by the New York Times regarding Trump’s tax returns may be fatal to his run. This is a subject which requires several perspectives, as Trump has broken no laws, has actually been exemplary in fulfilling his reaponsibilities to his shareholders, and the charge that he has paid no tax is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. On this note, we suggest readers watch this video by Stefan Molyneux on the matter. We are very interested in your thoughts on the matter; do let us know.
Eh?nonymous
It appears that the Trump phenomenon may be over. They say the only things for certain in life are death and taxes. For a time, it seemed that the former might be the only way to derail the Trump train. Hillary has mused about ‘droning’ Assange, and her past shows that her threats usually aren’t idle. Ask Gaddafi. Now it seems that it’s the latter that might be his undoing. Only in this case, the certainty about taxes is that if you have enough money and a talented enough team of bean counters, taxes become less of a certainty.
I think that many of us suspected that like all large multinational corporate entities, the Trump empire was (albeit completely within the rule of law) paying little or no tax. You don’t refuse to release tax returns because you’re paying too much tax.
But I can think of few things more damaging to the Trump campaign than the revelation to millions upon millions who have been attracted to his campaign, not because of walls or deporting Muslims, but because of fairness and equity, talking straight instead of in politically correct platitudes, and holding globalists to task.
Contrary to leftist propaganda, these are the issues that have won over the vast majority of Trump supporters.
The media has predicted that ‘this is the gaffe that ends it all’ since day one, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Much of his campaign has been built on the foundation that the game has been rigged against the little guy. That corporations are screwing ordinary Americans. But keeping his own taxes or lack thereof on the down low is a massive tactical error.
We can only assume that the Trump campaign took a calculated risk, hoping that this information wouldn’t come to light until at least after the election. Quite a naive leap of faith to think that in a world where most of Hillary Clinton’s dirty laundry has been hacked and disseminated, to assume that a disgruntled Trump employee or a rusted-on Democrat at the IRS wasn’t going to leak this information given the chance.
Trump’s campaign has been unorthodox since day one. With a little more savvy he could have easily have broken a story that was always going to come out sooner or later on his own terms. Something to the effect of:
“It’s a rigged system folks… a rigged system. Why am I legally able to not pay a dime… pay less tax than every one of you. I’ve seen what needs to change. Let’s change it”.
It all would have been B.S. of course, and left plenty of wriggle room to never actually have to do anything about tax reform, but it could well have been an election-winning Churchill moment for the Trump campaign. The big little guy fighting to change the system from within. A case of ‘I don’t like the game, but I had to play it to get to a point where I can finish and start a new game’.
Instead we see what could potentially be Trump’s Gary Johnson Aleppo moment. “What is Aleppo?” euthanised the Johnson campaign virtually overnight. There’s already a clear online backlash against Trump. The worst we’ve seen yet, and this is from supporters. The irony is that years of business savvy, the kind that could make America great again, might be the one unexpected development that scuttles his election chances.
Photo by Gage Skidmore 