-One of the greatest tax cheats in American history,
a criminally negligent sociopath who lost the popular vote
and is overseeing the preventable deaths
of hundreds of thousands of Americans
is on the verge of putting a third justice
on the Supreme Court,
and Republicans are full steam ahead.
This has been "A Closer Look."
Oh! Wait. I'm sorry.
I meant, it's time for "A Closer Look.".
♪♪
Every day, every single day, Donald Trump,
one of the most irritating, unlikable,
off-putting individuals in American history
invades our national consciousness
by commandeering the spotlight, saying something psychotic,
and forcing us all to think about him.
On top of everything else that sucks about the Trump era,
it's exhausting. When my head hits the pillow at night,
I think in his voice,
[ As Trump ] Did I leave the oven on?
I should go check.
Of course, if it's on, that's not my fault.
Seriously, I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old,
and even they don't demand my attention this much.
Because even on their worst days,
kids don't [bleep] themselves every five minutes.
Again? I just changed you.
For example, Trump has learned he can distract
from the news of the day and force the media to cover
whatever crazy nonsense he feels like saying
by pretending to hold a news conference at the White House
that almost always ends up turning into
a campaign rally/therapy session,
and apparently, I'm not the only one who feels this way,
because as Fox News tuned into Trump's latest gripe session
last night at the White House, a hot mic caught someone
expression their frustration live on air.
-I guess we have the president here.
-Oh [bleep]
-I hear you, disembodied voice. I hear you.
Wait, was that...the voice of the White House?
Has the White House resisted using its magical power
of speech for centuries, only to finally cave
at a Trump press conference to utter an exhausted "Oh [bleep]"?
Like, are we just gonna start hearing the internal monologue
of the building itself now?
-I guess we have the president here.
-Oh, here we go again with this [bleep] guy.
And stop getting ketchup on my curtains.
They're not napkins. -[ Laughs ]
Trump used the occasion to spew his usual BS
from his deranged claim that Joe Biden
is on performance-enhancing drugs to the lie
that mail balloting leads to fraud.
But even Trump with his vast powers of distraction
could not pull focus away from Sunday night's bombshell story.
"The New York Times" reported about Trump's
serial tax cheating and business losses,
and this story didn't go back decades
to dig up some embarrassing details
about Trump's early years in real estate.
This was about how much he paid in taxes
as a candidate and then as president.
-President Trump paid just $750
in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017.
That's according to a report by "The New York Times,"
which says it obtained more than two decades of tax return data
for the president and his companies.
According to "The Times," Mr. Trump paid no income taxes
at all in 10 of the previous 15 years,
largely because he reported losing
much more money than he made.
-That's such a great picture of him
in that "New York Times" story.
It's like they asked him to pose for it.
"Yeah, we just want to get you through the window of your car.
I don't know, just look like someone that doesn't pay taxes."
Also, $750?!
I paid more than that in Blockbuster late fees.
I'm serious, in 1993, I took out a copy of "The Prince of Tides,"
then I loaned it to my stoner friend
who sold it in a yard sale, and when Blockbuster shut down,
I owed 'em 750 bucks.
So I hope you enjoyed Nolte and Babs, Scooch.
I hope you enjoyed 'em.
Seriously, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around
just how corrupt this is.
A man who claims to be one of the most successful
business moguls in America who claims he's worth $10 billion,
who's cast himself as a patriotic hero
of the working class paid $750 in taxes
to the federal government
while he was president of the United States.
Jesus, dude, we are paying your room and board.
You can't even make it an even grand?
On top of everything else, it's so brazen.
I'm shocked we don't have surveillance video of Trump
sneaking out of Fort Knox with gold bars
stuffed in his pockets.
Maybe that's why his coat's always so bulky.
Just stole a bunch of coins from the US Mint.
"Mr. President, just before takeoff,
we're gonna need everybody's weight."
[ As Trump ] Well, let's see. I'm like a buck-80,
but Melania, she's like an even 1,200.
[ As Melania ] Donald! [ As Trump ] Be cool, Melania.
My coat's full of loot.
Just be cool for once, Melania.
[ Normal voice ] In fact, that basically
is what Trump's been doing.
He's been bilking donors and taxpayers
for millions of dollars at his private clubs
and golf courses while lobbyists and foreign officials
pour money into his hotels to curry favor with him,
and now we know why -- The dude's broke!
"The Times" reports President Trump's
core businesses, from his golf courses
to his Washington, D.C., hotel,
had been losing millions of dollars year after year.
Also dangling over the president's head,
a decade-long audit by the IRS over the legitimacy
of a nearly $73 million tax refund that Trump received.
An adverse ruling in that case could cost Mr. Trump
more than $100 million, and he's personally responsible
for loans and other debts totaling $421 million,
most of it coming due within four years.
-So now we know why Trump's so desperate
to stay in the White House.
He needs the free housing. He need a place to crash.
He's your deadbeat friend who refuses to get a job
because he's still working on his idea for an app
that tells you which Chipotle locations
have the hottest cashiers.
"I just need to crash with you
until I get Chipot-bae off the ground.
And then, it's just soaring to the skies."
Trump's the Dupree of the White House.
Oh, that's another one I forgot to return to Blockbuster.
I hope you enjoyed the laid-back antics of Owen Wilson, Scooch.
I hope you did.
So, Trump paid virtually nothing in taxes in 2016 and 2017.
It's one thing to do this
while you're just a New York real-estate grifter,
but it's especially brazen to do it
while you're a sitting president.
That means he was in the Oval Office
on the phone with his accountant saying, what,
[ As Trump ] 890 bucks seems like a lot.
Could we get it down to $750?
It was $750 last year.
I feel like that was more than fair.
[ Normal voice ] But because of his business entaglements
across the world, which by the way,
are almost certainly unconstitutional,
he did pay a lot more to foreign governments.
In 2017, the president's $750 contribution to the operations
of the US government was dwarfed by the $15,598
he or his companies paid in Panama,
the $145,400 in India,
and the $156,824 in the Philippines.
Amazing, the president of the United States
paid more in taxes to Panama
than he did to the United States.
Maybe that's why Trump keeps asking other countries
to help in the election. He thinks they owe him.
[ As Trump ] Hello, Philippines,
do you have any dirt on Joe Biden?
If you do, I will pay my taxes in full again this year.
And by the way, this report is not isolated.
We already know Trump is a prolific tax cheat
who's swindled the American people for decades.
"The Times" previously reported that Trump lost $1 billion
in over a decade in the '80s and '90s
and avoided paying income taxes for 8 of those 10 years.
And in congressional testimony, his ex-fixer Michael Cohen
told Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
that Trump may well have committed tax fraud
by lying about the value of his assets to save money.
-To your knowledge, was the president interested in reducing
his local real-estate bills, tax bills?
-Yes.
-And how did he do that?
-What you do is you deflate the value of the asset
and then you put in a request to the tax department
for a deduction.
-Of course, with Trump it was probably hard to tell
that he was deflating the value of his assets
since everything he owns eventually turns
to [bleep] anyway.
He says his casino's worth $0,
but I guess that makes sense,
the slot machine only has two reels.
Now, what Cohen alleged there is illegal.
And we know Trump is already under investigation by both
the Manhattan D.A. and the New York State Attorney General.
With the D.A.'s office even suggesting Trump
could be indicted for tax fraud.
But to my mind, what's legal is just as much of a scandal here.
Trump took advantage of a labyrinth tax system
designed to protect his wealth
and shield him from consequences.
In fact, he and his allies have long argued
they'd rather be ashamed of this behavior.
He should be proud of it.
-The reality is, this is part of our tax code.
The man's a genius, he knows how to operate the tax code.
-There's no one who's shown more genius in their way to maneuver
around the tax code
as he rightfully used the laws to do that.
-As a businessman and real-estate developer,
I have legally used the tax laws to my benefit.
I have brilliantly -- I have brilliantly used those laws.
-Maybe he doesn't want the American people,
all of you watching tonight, to know that
he's paid nothing in federal taxes
because the only years that anybody's ever seen
were a couple of years when he had to turn them over
to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license
and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax.
So, if he's paid -- -That makes me smart.
-No one who's actually smart ever says,
"That makes me smart."
When Einstein unveiled his theory of relativity,
he didn't lean into the mic and say,
"Get ready, guys, it's genius o'clock."
More importantly, it doesn't make you smart,
it makes you powerful.
There are plenty of smart people who pay their taxes in full
every year, because they don't have the armies of accountants
and vampire lawyers that rich people like Trump
or companies like Amazon have.
Regular Americans can't get away with this stuff
because the law or the IRS would come down hard on them.
A ProPublica investigation found that the five counties
with the highest audit rates
are all predominantly African American,
rural counties in the Deep South.
Meanwhile, the Trumps and Amazons of the world
skate by without any consequence and that's because the system
is rigged to protect them.
if the IRS found out you did what Trump is accused of,
your response would be...
That's the big takeaway here. Trump is not unique.
He's the product and enabler of a corrupt system
that shields the wealthiest and most powerful in our society
while crushing everyone else.
91 companies paid no federal taxes in 2018.
Companies like Amazon, Chevron, or Starbucks.
Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans are out of work,
facing eviction, struggling to afford health care,
and waiting in line at food banks.
Trump and his allies don't just benefit from that system,
they're trying to preserve it, which is why they're so
deeply invested in making sure he stays in power
any way they can. Remember, the 2017 tax law
that wrote in so many obscure tax loopholes to benefit
the wealthy, they were literally scrawling in the margins of the
bill at the last minute.
-It's the night we're gonna be voting on the tax bill.
I just got the tax bill 25 minutes ago.
This is the tax bill.
See how thick it is.
[ Thuds ]
This is what it looks like.
Oh, no, let's look at the bill.
This is what it really looks like.
I want you to take a look at this, folks.
This is your government at work.
Here's the bill as it's written.
Here's the modifications that are in it.
I can read one word, it's called "Add this language."
Can you tell me what that word is?
If you can, you got better eyes than me.
-They scribbled tax loopholes in the margins
like a high school senior signing a year book.
"K.I.T. C U next year!!!"
Trump and the people like him were protected
and enriched by a rigged system.
Then they got in office and rigged it even more
and now they're desperate to preserve that system,
which is why they're pulling out all the stops
to raise to get a 6-3 conservative super majority
on the Supreme Court
after people have already started voting.
Trump's nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, has a history of ruling
against workers and consumers and for big business.
Which is why right wing billionaire Charles Koch
has already launched a campaign
to get her confirmed on Saturday.
Trump officially announced his nomination of Barrett.
Although, I have to say, he didn't sound quite as excited
as you'd expect.
-Now we gather in the rose garden
to continue our never-ending task of ensuring equal justice
and preserving the impartial rule of law.
The entire Notre Dame law facility and faculty,
everybody -- everybody at that school also,
we got so many letters also wrote,
letters of support of Amy's nomination to the 7th Circuit.
-Classic facility and the faculty.
Buddy, you call Biden low energy?
You sound like a transistor radio that's low on batteries.
I'm surprised he didn't have to slap himself in the face
like a long-haul trucker trying to stay awake.
[ As Trump ] Only 12 hours till Phoenix. You can make it!
[ Normal voice ] The reality is Trump is bored
because he couldn't care less about the Supreme Court
or the Constitution or whatever else
Stephen Miller wrote for him to say on Saturday.
I guarantee you he flipped through that speech
five minutes before he gave it the way you flip through
a "Golf Digest" at a dentist office.
This was the bargain Trump made with conservatives
in the institutional Republican Party.
They'd put up with his racism and his corruption
and his incompetence and his abuses of power
as long as he gave them the tax cuts
and the conservative Supreme Court majority
they've long wanted. Over 200,000 Americans are dead
from an out of control pandemic.
And the president has just been exposed as one of the greatest
tax cheats in American history.
And the strongest condemnation Republicans can muster is...
This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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