The piece goes on to establish that it's an either/or question: is he a failure or a cheat and a criminal.
No one continue to be a failure for nearly four decades, losing hundreds of millions nearly every year, as Donald Trump apparently has done, at least on paper, with the lifestyle he leads. That's illogical. But that's what the nearly four decades worth of tax returns unearthed by the New York Times at various times shows.
Thus it's almost certain that he's a cheat and a criminal. The cheating is fairly small potatoes, given the total dollar picture in the return. He's improperly deducted things like $70,000 for hairstyling and $700,000 in "consulting fees" to daughter Ivanka.
His golf course business, however, is where big bucks are lost year after year after year but the courses remain open. He bought them with $400 million in cash from mysterious, unidentified sources and then lost $315 million over twenty years.
That's exactly what a money-laundering front would look like: $X00 million of dirty money from criminal operations would come in the front door from mob "investors," and then clean money would go out the back door as "expenses." Actual real revenue and expenses would be mixed into the money laundering, with the kicker that dirty money would continue to come in as "membership fees" (Trump charges those in the hundreds of thousands a head).
All of this is something the Manhattan District Attorney and the New York Attorney General already are or undoubtedly will be looking into. That's why the Manhattan DA has been fighting in court to get access to Trump's tax returns and Trump has been using taxpayer dollars in an attempt to stop it.
Some people might wonder: well if there was money laundering, why didn't the IRS say something? The simple answer is: they can't. They're prohibited by law from ratting out people and companies to other branches of the government when activity looks hinky. The only time they can initiate legal action is if tax fraud or tax avoidance is suspected, which is an entirely different issue than money laundering.
If Covid19 doesn't kill Trump, his fishy tax returns may well end up doing the job, at least metaphorically, just like with Al Capone. If he loses the election, Trump's next big project may be fighting to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. And he won't have the power of the presidency to hide behind any longer to help him nor taxpayer-funded legal services.
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