TAXES/TRUMP BUSINESS/TRUMP TAXES: “President Donald Trump on Wednesday [5-8-19] defended the massive losses he racked up in the 1980s and 1990s, saying the tax write-offs from bad deals were all part of the ‘sport’ of business at the time. The New York Times reported Tuesday [5-7-19] that tax figures it obtained from the years 1985 to 1994 show that even as Trump was loudly touting his wealth and dealmaking prowess, he was bleeding money, some years to the tune of hundreds of millions. But the president on Wednesday said there was no problem with those numbers, asserting that ‘almost all real estate developers’ did the same thing…Trump’s finances have been at the center of a fierce battle between congressional Democrats and the White House, with the administration repeatedly stonewalling requests for the IRS to release his tax returns — which lawmakers say could reveal foreign conflicts of interest — and his businesses taking banks to court for complying with congressional requests. Though the tax information uncovered by the Times is not the same as what Democrats are seeking, the peek into the future president’s finances paints a damning picture of the self-made billionaire branding that that shot him to fame and eventually to the White House.”
–Caitlin Oprysko, “Trump defends his massive losses on business deals: ‘It was sport’,” Politico, May 8, 2019 8:49 am