It's high time that Trump releases his taxes

[Thebobo]

Trump is said to utilize approx 500 entities to hold his various businesses. I doubt the hotel is held directly in his name. I also doubt he owns 100%.

Whether or not the corp distributes dividends to shareholders is irrelevant.

Not exactly sure why you think Trump being a shareholder is legally different from anybody else being a shareholder.

IIRC, the attorney suing has said that a blind trust is no defense.

Fern

Trump has a 60 year lease for the Hotel in DC from the General Services Administration. So he doesn't own it, if that matters.

Way back in November the Washington Post ran an article about the conflicts.

In 2013, the General Services Administration leased Washington’s historic Post Office Pavilion to the Trump Organization for $180 million. Before his inauguration on Jan. 20, the GSA must terminate the Organization’s lease. The 60-year deal presents unprecedented and intolerable conflicts of interest. Swift action by GSA is necessary to protect the integrity of the federal government contracting process.

The Trump Organization’s lease with GSA includes similar language, stating that “no … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom.”

And there you go but I suppose he could easily get HIS congress to change the law

 

[agent00f]

Naturally we have the right, no the obligation, to question. What's sad is that people believe that right supersedes law "because it's obvious". If there is a legal basis, go for it.

Hmm... "Trump must surrender his taxes because it's obvious he's been bribed". The reply I'd make would be "How do you know" and the response "because it's obvious".

Finding one guilty in advance of knowledge properly obtained and examined just doesn't seem like a good cause for a hanging party. A lot of people over the ages were harmed by that "thinking".

Makes sense that right wingers who pretend to be independent fall on the same side of these matters as vampirefo types.

 

[Sunburn74]

Dude, you have a corrupt man supposedly running a corrupt country full of corrupt law makers and your thinking releasing taxes will make any difference?

The whole system, from top to bottom is designed to serve the elite. These are side stories to keep the sheeple talking about BS issues. Yeah, taxes matter; however, the issue is that the whole system is so crooked that it doesn't really matter in the bigger picture.

America is a giant corporation. Trump is its CEO.

I think to get things right you have to get both big things and little things right. Big things matter more than little things, but the if too many little things stink, its a problem. Heck in the past, if you said one little thing during your campaign that was off-putting you were out of the race entirely. Howard Dean was kicked out for one simple half yell/scream/laugh thing during an otherwise kickass speech

Trump talks about sexual assault and people say "he lets focus on the big issues"

Everything I've read is that Trump has only relinquished control of his business by resigning from his businesses but still owns them.

This is meaningless. He still has control over the companies if he knows who's running it and if whoever is running it is under his control and communicates with him. Therefore he can still make presidential decisions to benefit himself.

A blind trust means he doesn't know who is running the company and they have the right to do whatever they want in any regard. They could sell everything on day 1 and thats it. No questions asked. If you have someone who can at a whim sell all of his stuff and trump only finds out by reading the next day paper, that is a blind trust. In such a situation, trump may know where stuff is but he can't predict how his decisions will actually affect the company. He may make a move that benefits his golf course and the owner says "man this is such a great time to sell" and the guy sells everything to trump's dismay. Or trump may make a move to destroy some country or city or whatever and the blind trust had just 1 week before, unbeknownst to trump, put half his total money into that country and so on.

But his son's or any former employee running the company is the antithesis of a blind trust.

 

[blackangst1]

I think to get things right you have to get both big things and little things right. Big things matter more than little things, but the if too many little things stink, its a problem. Heck in the past, if you said one little thing during your campaign that was off-putting you were out of the race entirely. Howard Dean was kicked out for one simple half yell/scream/laugh thing during an otherwise kickass speech

Trump talks about sexual assault and people say "he lets focus on the big issues"


This is meaningless. He still has control over the companies if he knows who's running it and if whoever is running it is under his control and communicates with him. Therefore he can still make presidential decisions to benefit himself.

A blind trust means he doesn't know who is running the company and they have the right to do whatever they want in any regard. They could sell everything on day 1 and thats it. No questions asked. If you have someone who can at a whim sell all of his stuff and trump only finds out by reading the next day paper, that is a blind trust. In such a situation, trump may know where stuff is but he can't predict how his decisions will actually affect the company. He may make a move that benefits his golf course and the owner says "man this is such a great time to sell" and the guy sells everything to trump's dismay. Or trump may make a move to destroy some country or city or whatever and the blind trust had just 1 week before, unbeknownst to trump, put half his total money into that country and so on.

But his son's or any former employee running the company is the antithesis of a blind trust.

Regarding a blind trust, youre absolutely correct. And because of the size of Trumps holdings, a true blind trust isn't reasonable nor realistic.

 

[bshole]

Regarding a blind trust, youre absolutely correct. And because of the size of Trumps holdings, a true blind trust isn't reasonable nor realistic.

So.... are you arguing for Trump's resignation? Surely you aren't arguing that he should be allowed to make policy decisions that he knows will make him a fortune.

 

[blackangst1]

So.... are you arguing for Trump's resignation? Surely you aren't arguing that he should be allowed to make policy decisions that he knows will make him a fortune.

Absolutely not. I understand its been a tradition in this country for Presidents to not only release their tax returns, but to divest themselves from any businesses they may control or own. Not out of legality, of course, but out of good faith. Enter Trump, who either owns or has controlling interest in over 500 companies. Who knows how many others he has partial share of. IMHO its unrealistic to simply sell off 500 companies. Its ridiculous. As we all know, its not specifically against the law for a POTUS to own a business while sitting. I know its all the rage right now to hate the extremely wealthy, Im just not one of those people. Therefore, I don't really care if he maintains ownership (even though he HAS given up management). Wealthy people don't bother me, unless they earn their wealth by deceptive or illegal means (i.e. Madoff et al).

As far as Trump making decisions that could personally affect him, given the scope of his empire its unavoidable. Anything he passes or vetoes in regards to international trade, for example, would affect him in one way or another. But, on the flip-side, if it DOES benefit him, it will likely benefit anyone who does business internationally. So if it benefits him AND other American companies, Im OK with that. As far as him passing passing exec. orders to benefit him, history has shown that doesn't always work out so well (see plenty of examples here: http://www.heritage.org/research/re...tive-orders-and-other-presidential-directives). I would hope our legislative and judicial branches would keep him in check, and Im confident they will. He is not, afterall, the king.

 

[MrSquished]

We all know that if Trump's tax returns showed him to be charitable, super wealthy and with great business deals, he would have released them. He is clearly hiding something