The publication of three pages of Trump’s 1995 tax returns in this Sunday’s New York Times is very bad for Trump, who has argued that the public would gain no useful information from looking at his returns. Unfortunately for him, his 1995 return has one very useful piece of information in the form of a $916 million loss. This is bad for Trump because of the questions that will now dog him: How did he lose so much? And did he use the loss to avoid paying taxes for nearly two decades? But just as importantly, it also erases his rationale for not releasing his returns. (Trump has also said he has not released them because he is under audit, but that’s some BS.)
It is abundantly clear that Trump is hiding something. And of course, he won’t release his returns. Instead, he will try to gaslight his way out of the mess that he’s in.
On Sunday, Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani hit the morning shows to explain that, actually, Trump losing $916 million in one year is proof that he is a genius. In a memorable appearance on Jake Tapper’s State of the Union, Giuliani argued that Trump was doing what any good businessman would do: He was protecting his assets. (Giuliani did not explain if losing $916 million was also what a good businessman would do.)
And per the Times, “To regain footing and try to turn attention back on Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump plans to use a speech on Monday in Colorado to call attention to how both Clintons became very wealthy after leaving the White House.”
Making baseless allegations against the Clintons is the only card in Trump’s deck. The problem, however, is that the issues he turns to when painted into a corner—Bill Clinton’s infidelities, the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi—have all been litigated before. Still, he has been able to hoodwink portions of the media into treating the Clintons’ scandals as being on par with his scandals. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time.