U.S. President Donald Trump’s businesses bled hundreds of millions of dollars over the last two decades, enabling him to minimize his federal income tax bill to $0 during a number of years, according to a bombshell report published on Sunday by The New York Times.
Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and another $750 the following year, the newspaper reported, and none at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.
The losses also strained Trump’s finances, according to the paper. The Times article goes on to say he is personally responsible for more than $420 million in debt, most of which is coming due within the next four years.
The report comes just two days before Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden meet for the first general election debate of the 2020 contest. The story appears to be based on the most complete collection of the president’s recent tax returns assembled to date.
The Times said that the story is the first of several, with more to be published in the coming weeks. Two of the reporters who authored the story won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of the president’s finances based on earlier tax records.
Trump called the story "fake news" at a White House news conference that took place shortly after the story was published.
