What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to hide his finances from the BBC, which he's suing over alleged damages to his finances.

Through his lawyers today, Trump demanded to be exempted from financial disclosures as part of a lawsuit he's filed against the BBC. Discovery is a routine part of any lawsuit that ensures both parties are fully disclosing all relevant information.

Just before the 2024 presidential election, the BBC released a documentary titled Trump: A Second Chance? It contained a clip of Trump speaking on January 6 to a crowd of people that included many of those who, just hours later, would be attacking a session of Congress in a desperate attempt to help Trump cling to power. In that scene, Trump's voice can be heard saying "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

That was actually a splice of two quotes: in the first half, Trump is encouraging the crowd to support those members of Congress who supported him. In the second, he really is winding up the crowd for the riot that eventually happened. But edits like that aren't best practices for objective reporting, and after the newly re-elected Trump complained, the BBC apologized.

Trump then sued the BBC for $10,000,000,000. 

It's extremely unlikely that Trump could win the suit because, in simplest terms, nobody is required by law to only say things about him that he approves of. Painting public figures in an unflattering light, or even outright lying about them, isn't enough by itself to generate liability. (If it were, the thousands of people Trump has lied about and insulted would all have a case against him.) What's more, the underlying message of the BBC documentary—that Trump's statements in that rally were part of the criminal conspiracy he was indicted for—is absolutely true.

Trump also claimed that the documentary was meant to "interfere in and influence the election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment." Again, even if that were the intent, speech intended to change people's minds about the outcome of an election isn't a crime or grounds for a lawsuit—at least, not if it's not part of collusion with a hostile foreign government.  

One of Trump's claims is that the documentary cost his businesses money in lost revenue. In a predictable response, the BBC is now seeking legal discovery about his businesses' finances. In this case, to determine whether a TV show that aired in a foreign country six days before an election that has obviously made Trump's businesses suddenly more profitable, to the tune of billions of dollars, could possibly have had any effect on his bottom line. 

Other relevant information would include those businesses' tax returns, corporate structures, subsidiaries, offshore accounts, and other financial data. This is an extremely sensitive area for Trump: setting aside his tax cheating on his personal income and the 34 felony fraud charges he was convicted of in 2024, the Trump Organization has also been convicted of tax fraud and other crimes. Its CFO, Allen Weisselberg—also Trump's personal financial fixer—went to prison for his role in those crimes.

The BBC's requests were granted by the judge overseeing the trial last month. In ruling that discovery could proceed, the court noted that Trump had made broad and vague claims about the damage that the documentary did to his "brand," so discovery could be equally broad.

Of course, just because the BBC got access to Trump's financial information doesn't necessarily mean it would become public. Trump could seek an order from the judge sealing it. But pertinent information could still come out at trial, in the unlikely event Trump—who has spent most of the last 11 years stonewalling attempts to learn where his money is coming from—is willing to go forward now.

Trump also sued several American media companies for their supposed offenses against him, in what was transparently an extortion attempt, as the BBC suit may have been intended to be. Both ABC and CBS settled for token amounts rather than risk Trump openly using the powers of his office to do real harm against them.

Why does this matter?

• Using the powers of office to extort friendly coverage for the leader from the media is what dictators do. 

• Trump damaged his own reputation by trying to overturn the will of the American people who voted him out of office, not the people who were filming him do it. 

• You don't get to demand $10 billion every time someone hurts your feelings.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He wrote himself a get-out-of-jail-for-tax-fraud-and-evasion-free card.

Contrary to popular belief, most extremely wealthy Americans do pay their taxes. The reason that many of the very richest Americans often end up paying a much lower rate than poor and middle-class citizens is that the tax code is written with loopholes only they can take advantage of. (Many of them were put there by Trump himself, and meant to benefit him primarily.)

Donald Trump, however, is the exception: he is, without question, one of the most flagrant tax cheats in American history, surpassing even his rival dabbler on the New York real estate scene, Leona Helmsley. Investigative reporting, criminal prosecutions of his businesses and his fraudulent charity, and a few tax returns that the public managed to see all tell the same story. The leaked data that formed the basis of Trump's recently settled lawsuit against the IRS for its "negligence" in letting a third party contractor see his returns during his first term didn't change that picture—it only confirmed what reporters had already learned. 

Most of this was already known in general terms during the 2016 campaign, which is why Trump—unlike every other major party candidate since Nixon—refused to release his tax returns for public inspection. But the scope was much worse than most voters had any reason to expect: if Trump had been honest about his tax returns and released them, they would have shown that he'd paid nothing at all in taxes for 10 of the previous 15 years, and only $750 in 2016. Even a part-time, minimum-wage employee would pay more than that.

Yesterday, the DOJ announced that Trump's executive branch had "agreed" to settle Trump's private lawsuit against the IRS, in exchange for a slush fund to pay off the convicted criminals who tried to help him throw out the results of the 2020 election. Today, it released another detail: it was permanently exempting Trump, his businesses, or his family members from any investigation or prosecution for tax crimes—forever.

As the memo signed by Acting Attorney General and former Trump defense attorney makes clear, that is not an exaggeration.

The United States RELEASES, WAIVES, ACQUITS, and FOREVER DISCHARGES each of the Plaintiffs from, and is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims, counterclaims, causes of action, appeals, or requests for any relief, including injunctive relief, monetary relief, damages, examinations or similar or related reviews, appeals, debt relief, costs, attorney’s fees, expenses, and/or interest, whether presently known or unknown, that—as of the Effective Date of the Settlement Agreement—have been or could have been asserted by Defendants against any of the Plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals (including, without limitation, family or others filing jointly), or parties including trusts, parent, sister, or related companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries, by reason of, with respect to, in connection with, or which arise out of (1) any matters that were raised or could have been raised in the Case or the Pending Agency Claims; (2) Lawfare and/or Weaponization; or (3) any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date) before Defendants or other agencies or departments. 

Even ignoring the fact that Trump is writing himself a get-out-of-jail-free-card by agreeing on behalf of the government not to even begin an investigation into him as a private citizen, this document would save Trump enormous amounts of money in the future. Not only would it effectively incentivize him to commit ongoing tax fraud (which the IRS would be forbidden to take any notice of), it would save him from having to repay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes he's already evaded.

Trump's promise not to investigate himself is not likely to be legally binding on future administrations.
 

Why does this matter?

• There is only one reason that a government official would try to exempt themselves from criminal investigation. 

• Even if he writes himself a note on Presidential letterhead saying that he is above the law, Donald Trump is not above the law.  

What did Donald Trump do today?

He got handed a legal setback in his attempt to pay himself $10 billion in taxpayer money.

Trump, a billionaire heir who routinely praises himself for not taking his $0.0004 billion salary as president, is suing the IRS for $10 billion on the grounds that it was negligent in allowing some of his tax returns to be released. The supposed "negligence" occurred during Trump's first term in office while he himself was responsible for it.

But the IRS—which is under Trump's direct control and is led by Trump appointees—has recently been signaling that it will settle the matter out of court with Trump. An actual trial that the IRS was trying to win, as it would against literally any other plaintiff besides Trump, would probably last longer than Trump's tenure as president, at which point a new administration would almost certainly start fighting back in court. A quick settlement, on the other hand, would net Trump some or all of the $10 billion at issue immediately, while he could still write the check with one hand and cash it with the other.

That may explain why Trump's legal team notified the district court handling the "lawsuit" about a potential settlement before the IRS legal team had even had a chance to formally acknowledge the suit—a pretty obvious tell that would never happen when the parties weren't colluding with one another. 

The obvious irregularity was noted today by Judge Kathleen Williams, who ordered Trump and the IRS to explain why there was any controversy between Trump the plaintiff looking to profit from the government taking orders from Trump the defendant. She noted in her order that Trump has signed executive orders requiring the Department of Justice (which would represent the IRS in this case) to follow his direct instructions.

President Trump has issued multiple executive orders which shape the relationship of the agencies of the executive branch to his presidency. For example, “[n]o employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law … that contravenes the President[’s] . . . opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to … positions advanced in litigation[.]” 

One such employee of the executive branch, the Attorney General, has a statutory obligation to defend the IRS when it is hailed into court, but then is ostensibly required by executive mandate to adhere to the President’s opinion on a matter of law in such a case. 

The result, Judge Williams wrote, is that it's not clear "whether the Parties here are truly antagonistic to each other." Precisely to avoid sham settlements like this, courts do not consider cases where there is no actual dispute.

Williams' order does not end Trump's chances at "winning" $10 billion from taxpayers for having evidence of his obvious and already well-documented tax crimes released to the news media, but it will slow it down, and draw attention that Trump clearly doesn't want.  

Why does this matter?

• Corruption doesn't get much more obvious than a president demanding $10 billion directly from the government branch he leads. 
  
  
• That $10 billion will come from the pockets of Americans who don't cheat on their taxes.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He made a (mostly) truthful statement about donating his presidential salary back to the government.

Trump appeared today at a political event to shore up Republicans' chances in a special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. (Greene, previously one of Trump's top MAGA lieutenants in Congress, retired abruptly after a falling out with Trump over the Epstein files, accusing him of covering up the crimes of his wealthy friends.) The district is overwhelmingly Republican, and Greene crushed her Democratic opponent by 29 points in 2024, but Trump's deep unpopularity after another year in office is making Republicans—and Trump himself—nervous about even the safest races.

During his speech, Trump made the following claim:

I don't even talk about this much, I get no credit for it. So — as president I make two million dollars over four years, two and a half million. I waived it. And they never, ever talk about it. But every week some of the scum from the New York Times will call, "Did he waive it?" And my secretary will say "Yes, he did." If I ever said "No he didn't" it would be a headline scandal.

It's not true that nobody covers Trump's donation of his salary: Trump himself made sure of that, holding showy White House events on a regular basis to call attention to his "generosity." And it's not true that Trump's salary was $2 or $2.5 million for four years: the salary of the president is $400,000 per year, or $1.6 million per term. But as far as publicly verifiable sources are concerned, it appears to be true that Trump has effectively forgone his presidential salary during his time in office. 

Ignoring the tax benefits that might accrue, this means that Trump has donated about $2 million total.

What else did Donald Trump do today?

He declared that he would be taking $10 billion from the Treasury and depositing it in a fake non-governmental organization that he has lifetime control over.

In an earlier speech at the inaugural meeting of his so-called "Board of Peace," Trump said that he would seize $10 billion in taxpayer dollars and putting it in the organization's accounts. By the "Board's" charters, Trump has essentially unlimited personal authority over the entire organization, and retains it regardless of whether he is president or not. He functionally cannot be removed as the Board's chair, and he can install whoever he likes as his successor. 

In practice, this means the Board is a Trump slush fund. He had attempted, with no verifiable success, to get the dubious collection of member nations to pay $1 billion each as a bribe for membership and access to him. 

Congress has made no such appropriation. It is illegal and unconstitutional for a president to spend money without an appropriation.

The $10 billion in taxpayer money that Trump is threatening to give to the "Board of Peace" is not the same as the $10 billion in taxpayer money that he is demanding from the IRS for "negligence" in allowing his tax returns to be released (during his first term, when he was responsible for it). It's also not the same as the $10 billion he's suing the BBC for because an independent media company edited a single quote in a documentary. Nor is it the same as the taxpayer money he is demanding because the FBI caught him with stolen classified documents after his first term, for which he wants $230 million.

 $10 billion is equivalent to twenty-five thousand years of presidential salary, or the amount of money that a typical American family would accumulate if they'd started making the median annual household income at about the same time that Paleolithic humans made the earliest ceremonial bone etchings ever discovered.

Why does this matter?

• Corruption doesn't get any more obvious than a president taking tens of billions of taxpayer dollars and putting it in his own pocket.

• Acting like you're above the law is a good way to show how much contempt you have for people who obey it.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to help himself to $10 billion of taxpayer money.

Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion today, claiming that the agency was negligent because a contractor in leaked his tax returns over a period of time in 2019 and 2020. Those leaks became the basis for a number of New York Times and ProPublica stories that, while damning, didn't add much to what was already known about Trump's long history of tax cheating.

These are the specific articles that the lawsuit cites:

• Long-Concealed Records Show Trump’s Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance (NYT, Sept. 27, 2020) 
• 18 Revelations From a Trove of Trump Tax Records (NYT, Sept. 27, 2020) 
• Here Are the Key Numbers From Trump’s Tax Returns (NYT, Dec. 21, 2022) 
• Trump Tax Returns Undermine His Image as a Successful Entrepreneur (NYT, Dec. 30, 2022)
• Key Takeaways From Trump’s Tax Returns (NYT, Dec. 30, 2022)
• Trump’s Taxes: Red Flags, Big Losses and a Windfall From His Father (NYT, Dec. 21, 2022)
• Live Updates: I.R.S. Didn’t Audit Trump for 2 Years in Office, House Committee Says (NYT, Dec. 21, 2022) 
• Trump Paid $750 in Federal Income Taxes in 2017. Here’s the Math. (NYT, Sept. 29, 2020) 
• Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies (ProPublica, Oct. 26, 2019)
• Meet the Shadowy Accountants Who Do Trump's Taxes and Help Him Seem Richer Than He Is (ProPublica, May 6, 2020)

Bizarrely, Trump's filing also claims that all of the above stories are false, even though they are based on leaks of his actual tax returns. 

In other words, Trump says he should be paid $10 billion dollars as a private citizen for "negligence" that happened on his watch as President, and he wants political cronies he appointed to lead the IRS and Justice Department—and whom he can fire or overrule—to decide whether he should get it.

Trump is making a lot of money during his second for himself and his political allies this way. In addition to today's lawsuit, Trump is "asking" his own Department of Justice—which his former personal defense lawyers now run—for $230 million in an administrative process because, in short, the FBI investigated his ties to Russia and his outright theft of classified documents. His DOJ also "settled" a spurious claim for $5 million by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a woman who was shot during the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

That Trump is a tax cheat is beyond question: not only had it been exhaustively documented before the leaks described in this lawsuit, it was an element of his felony convictions in New York State. The Trump Organization was also found guilty of criminal tax fraud in 2022, and Trump's financial fixer and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg went to prison for it. That sort of thing is why Trump, who has been promising to release his tax returns since becoming a candidate in 2015, never has.
 

Why does this matter?

• Corruption doesn't get much more obvious than a president demanding $10 billion directly from the government branch he leads. 

• That $10 billion will come from the pockets of Americans who don't cheat on their taxes.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He made sure it would be easier to cheat on taxes on his watch.

Today, Trump—or someone using his authority as President—began firing as many as 7,000 IRS employees. He used the same loophole he's used to get around civil service job protections at other agencies, including the FAA, the National Parks Service, and the agency that builds and maintains the United States nuclear weapons stockpile.

The firings are expected to have two main effects. First, it will delay refunds and limit filing assistance for the vast majority of Americans who follow the law and file their taxes. Second, it will cost the federal government money as tax cheats—especially individuals at the very top of the income ladder—will be more likely to avoid paying their fair share, and more likely to try to hide assets.

Trump has claimed that the reason he wants to decimate the federal workforce is to save taxpayer money. The IRS, of course, generates taxpayer money—particularly when it enforces the law on people like Trump.

It's difficult to summarize all the various ways that Trump himself has bent or broken tax laws, before and during his presidency. He is known to have used tax-dodging schemes to illegally take about $413 million from his father. His company, the Trump Organization, was convicted of tax fraud in 2022. He famously refused to release his tax returns during his 2016 campaign, a usually routine step. When they were finally released to the public over Trump's objections after he'd left office, it was revealed that he'd lied about being under IRS audit during his term. (The IRS is required to audit presidents every year, and always has, with the specific exception of the years Donald Trump was president.) For ten out of 15 years ending in 2015, the self-described billionaire paid no income tax at all, and in 2016 and 2017 he paid $750—apparently so that he could say he paid taxes without technically lying. But he hasn't always shied away from his ability to pay less tax than a part-time minimum-wage worker: in a 2016 presidential debate, he boasted that not paying his taxes "means I'm smart." He has "paid" family members like his daughter Ivanka lavish "consulting fees" for unspecified business work, allowing him to deduct the amount from his business taxes while avoiding gift taxes. His fraudulent "charity," the Trump Foundation, was shut down by the state of New York in part because he used its tax-exempt status to hide wealth he controlled. He also deducted $70,000 in haircuts, claimed (and received) $72.9 million in refunds he wasn't entitled to, and paid hundreds of millions of dollars less than someone of his supposed wealth typically would.

The IRS is also a frontline agency for national security aims Trump might approve of (like disrupting the flow of money to Hamas and ISIL) and those he certainly would't (like enforcing sanctions against Russian oligarchs).

Why does this matter?

• Americans who don't cheat on their taxes don't usually like people who do.

• Donald Trump is not above the law, including the law that says he has to pay a tiny amount of his wealth as his fair share of taxes.

• A president who cared about efficiency or the budget deficit would make it easier for the government to collect the money it's legally owed, not more difficult.

EARLY VOTING IS NOW UNDERWAY IN THE FOLLOWING STATES: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming

What did Donald Trump do today? 

He tried to defuse the tax story without saying anything.

Trump made two public appearances today: once at a swing-state factory making electric trucks, and once at a coronavirus briefing. At the first, he reflexively began to answer when a reporter shouted a question, but turned and abruptly left after it became clear she was asking about the shocking revelations about his tax returns.

Q: Mr. President, are you looking forward to the debate?

TRUMP:  Yeah, I am.  I do.  I’m really —

Q: Mr. President, you tweeted about releasing a financial statement.  When will you release that?

TRUMP:  — I am looking — I am looking very forward to the debate.  Thank you, everybody.

 

At the second, he simply stalked away from the podium as reporters shouted questions.

Trump's strategy yesterday was to insist that, somehow, the 18 years of tax returns obtained by the New York Times were "fake news." He also insisted that unofficial financial disclosure forms would be a much better way to learn about his finances.

Today, in a tweet, he backtracked from even that, saying that he "may" release a self-reported financial statement. This hypothetical future statement—Trump didn't say when he might release it—would supposedly show that Trump had a healthy debt-to-cash ratio, and that it would be "IMPRESSIVE."

Of course, even without releasing his own copies of tax returns, Trump could easily disprove any false statements in the NYT article. He could also simply say who some of the unknown parties or countries are who own his debt, which may total $1.1 billion or more. Because the use of financial leverage is a common way of recruiting spies, far less debt than the NYT story uncovered would permanently disqualify Trump from getting even a basic security clearance, if he weren't president. 

He could also, if possible, explain why so much of what is revealed in the NYT returns looks so much like common (and illegal) tax evasion schemes. For example, Trump paid his daughter Ivanka, an employee of the Trump Organization, a separate fee as a "consultant." This allowed him to write off the amount as a business expense, but it's illegal to pay sham fees to avoid income or gift taxes.

Who cares?

• The only reason to keep something like this secret is that the truth is even more damning than keeping silent.

• It shouldn't be possible for anyone to have this much leverage over the President of the United States—much less any number of anonymous entities whose identity is protected by the president himself.

• Running away from reporters doesn't make questions go away.

EARLY VOTING IS NOW UNDERWAY IN THE FOLLOWING STATES: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming

What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried his best to fend off the inevitable catastrophe of his tax returns finally seeing the light of day.

Late this afternoon, the New York Times published a 30,000-word article that can be summarized this way: the paper has acquired Trump's tax returns for the last 18 years, and in most of them, he paid virtually no income taxes. 

Trump has tried desperately to prevent this information from coming out—although every other presidential candidate since Richard Nixon has released them—and it's now clear why. He paid either zero dollars in income taxes, or a token $750 amount (apparently so that he could say he was paying taxes at all), in 13 of the last 18 years.

The story (which the NYT summarizes in a separate article) makes the following revelations.

• Trump is personally in debt to the tune of $421 million, and those loans are coming due during what he hopes will be his next term in office. This means that the people holding those notes—in many cases, foreign interests—have and have always had enormous direct leverage over Trump.

• His business empire was in shambles for much of that time. Ironically, the only reliable source of income was his personal "brand"—which centered on the idea that he was a savvy and successful businessman.
  
  
• Trump's tax avoidance was astonishing even by the standards of the 0.001%—the group his supposed net worth puts him in. He paid $400 million less in taxes than the average member of that group.
  
  
• Among the "business expenses" used to zero out his tax bill were $70,000 in haircuts.

• He is fighting with the IRS—which reports to him—over an apparently invalid $72.9 million refund.

• The famous NYC Trump Tower, one of his few profitable real estate holdings, has a mortgage bill of over $100 million coming due in 2022, and he has made no payments on it.

Trump held a press conference today, supposedly to continue his remarks on the Supreme Court nomination he made yesterday, and gave this response when asked about it:

Q: [T]here’s a New York Times story that came out about an hour ago that says that, when you came to the White House, you were paying about $750 a year in federal income tax.

They are not releasing what — they’re not publishing the tax returns. They’re not showing that out there. They’re saying — to protect their sources. In your tax returns, sir, does that sound right, that you were paying a couple hundred dollars a year in federal income taxes?

TRUMP: No. No. It’s fake news. It’s totally fake news. Made up. Fake. We went through the same stories. You could have asked me the same questions four years ago. I had to litigate this and talk about it. Totally fake news. No.

Actually, I paid tax, but — and you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns — it’s under audit. They’ve been under audit for a long time. The IRS does not treat me well. They treat me like the Tea Party — like they treated the Tea Party. And they don’t treat me well. They treat me very badly.

You have people in the IRS — they’re very — they treat me very, very badly. But they’re under audit. And when they’re not, I would be proud to show you. But that’s just fake news. The New York Times tried it — the same thing. They want to create a little bit of a story, a little bit of — they’re doing anything they can.

Not only — that’s the least of it. I mean, the stories that I read are so fake. They’re so phony.

Q: Did they tell you this was going to come out today?

TRUMP: No, I didn’t know anything about it. I don’t know anything about it. I think somebody said they were going to do a negative — they always do — they only do negative stories.

It's a minor point, but Trump is definitely lying about knowing that the story was coming out. In fact, the press conference was clearly scheduled just so that Trump would be able to give an instant reaction. The White House was contacted for comment immediately before the story broke, and the press conference was only announced at 1:39 P.M. today, while Trump was still at the golf course.

The fact that Trump is under audit—as every president is, by law—has no bearing on his years-long attempts to keep the returns secret. He was always free to release them.

The larger problem for Trump, though, is that the NYT story cannot be "fake news," unless they literally manufactured 18 years of fictitious tax returns—which Trump could easily prove even without releasing his own copies.

So what?

• Voters may think that someone who constantly brags about his wealth should pay more in taxes than a part-time worker earning minimum wage.

• Nobody with financial problems this complicated has the time or energy to be president.

• It's bad if the president keeps secret all the different people who can threaten him with financial ruin.

• It's wrong to lie to the American people, even if the truth is humiliating.

WTDT reports on one thing Trump did every day, but not necessarily always the biggest news story of the day. For information about Trump's commutation of Roger Stone's sentence, see these news accounts.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He accused Joe Biden of having a "radical left" economic plan that he stole from Donald Trump.

Yesterday, Joe Biden unveiled his economic plan. It centers on infrastructure, government support of emerging industries, and worker-friendly policies like an increased minimum wage.

Asked about it today, Trump said this:

Q: What did you think of Joe Biden’s economic plan that he put out? 

TRUMP:  He plagiarized from me, but he can never pull it off.  He likes plagiarizing.  It’s a plan that is very radical left, but he said the right things, because he’s copying what I’ve done.  But the difference is he can’t do it, and he knows he’s not doing that.  It can’t be the same because he’s raising taxes way too much.  He’s raising everybody’s taxes.  He’s also putting tremendous amounts of regulations back on.  And those two things are two primary reasons that I created the greatest economy we’ve ever had.  And now we’re creating it again.  Okay?

In other words, Trump is saying that Biden stole his "radical leftist" economic plan from... Donald Trump, except that it's different in every way.

For what it's worth, Trump is correct that Biden intends to raise some taxes. Not on "everybody," but certainly on people as wealthy as Trump claims to be. That said, Trump may fare better under Biden's plan than the billionaires he claims as peers. He is nothing if not a skilled and daring tax evader, having legally written off over $900 million in losses sustained by other people—and illegally collected more than $400 million of his father's fortune tax-free.

Who cares?

• Trump doesn't have to like or even read about his opponent's platform, but if he chooses to talk about it, he should be able to make more sense than this.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He had a bit of a meltdown over his taxes.

The Supreme Court today, in a pair of 7-2 decisions, refused to grant Trump the "absolute immunity" from Congressional oversight and criminal investigation he'd demanded. The practical upshot is that, at the very least, New York state prosecutors and a grand jury will be able to subpoena Trump's taxes and financial records. 

Congress had also sought Trump's long-hidden taxes, but will have to make their case again in lower courts. Practically speaking, this means Trump will probably be able to stall long enough to prevent any pre-Election Day release of information about his financial empire's connections to Russian oligarchs and foreign banks—or, for that matter, how he used campaign funds to pay hush money to two women he had affairs with.

In other words, it was good news and bad news for Trump, which may be why his spokespeople spun it in different ways.

Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow said he was "pleased that in the decisions issued today, the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked both Congress and New York prosecutors from obtaining the President's financial records." 

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany declared that the administration was "pleased by the 9 to 0 opinion to send this back to the lower court, though we’re not pleased by the absolute immunity component." (The Court's complete rejection of Trump's claim to "absolute immunity" from investigation is what the 9-0 portion of the opinion was about.)

Attorney General William Barr, on the other hand, said he was "disappointed" by the ruling.

And this was how Trump himself responded, on Twitter:

PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT! “We know what took place. We have already seen criminality. What is happening? Biggest political scandal of our time.” @MariaBartiromo You are 100% correct, Maria, it is a disgrace that nothing happens. Obama and Biden spied on my campaign, AND GOT CAUGHT...BUT NOTHING! PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT! The Supreme Court sends case back to Lower Court, arguments to continue. This is all a political prosecution. I won the Mueller Witch Hunt, and others, and now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York. Not fair to this Presidency or Administration! Courts in the past have given “broad deference”. BUT NOT ME! We have a totally corrupt previous Administration, including a President and Vice President who spied on my campaign, AND GOT CAUGHT...and nothing happens to them. This crime was taking place even before my election, everyone knows it, and yet all are frozen stiff with fear.......Won all against the Federal Government and the Democrats send everything to politically corrupt New York, which is falling apart with everyone leaving, to give it a second, third and fourth try. Now the Supreme Court gives a delay ruling that they would never have given.......for another President. This is about PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT. We catch the other side SPYING on my campaign, the biggest political crime and scandal in U.S. history, and NOTHING HAPPENS. But despite this, I have done more than any President in history in first 3 1/2 years! POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!

Later, Trump appeared on Sean Hannity's TV show and complained bitterly that he was being investigated by New York state law enforcement even though the federal government had supplied New York City with hospital equipment during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Why is this a problem?

• Presidents are not above the law.

• Nobody expects Trump to be happy about losing his criminal investigation shield, but that's quite a tantrum even by his standards.

• The presidency is not a protection racket.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He normalized pardoning corruption.

Trump issued pardons or clemencies to eleven federal felons today. At least eight of them had personal connections to Trump or his fixer Rudy Giuliani, or had been accused of crimes that Trump himself is thought to have committed. They included:

• Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on corruption charges after being impeached and expelled from office for trying to sell then-President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. Blagojevich befriended Trump on the set of Trump's one bona fide business success, hosting the reality show The Apprentice.

• Trump was impeached (but not removed from office) for trying to promote corruption in Ukraine.

• Michael Milken, a bonds trader who shared the New York City limelight with Trump in the 1980s before being convicted of tax fraud and securities reporting violations. 

• Trump is known to have participated in a family tax-avoidance scheme that allowed him to inherit almost half a billion dollars tax-free. He's also been accused by his co-conspirator and former fixer Michael Cohen of falsifying the value of properties he owns to defraud banks.

• Bernard Kerik, the disgraced former NYPD chief under then-mayor Rudy Giuliani. Kerik, too, was convicted of tax evasion. Giuliani promoted Kerik, in spite of limited qualifications, because he had served on the mayor's security detail. He was briefly considered for the new post of Secretary of Homeland Security by the George W. Bush administration, but was forced to withdraw after he lied to officials about his ties to organized crime.

• Trump has never made any secret of his admiration for what he sees as the "tough guys" of organized crime, and spent much of his life trying to get as close to them as was safe for someone like him. 

• Ari Friedler, the CEO of an educational services company and (like many pardoned today) a prominent Trump donor, who was convicted of hacking into competitors' computers.

• Trump—who also dabbled in "educational services" of a more illegal sort—benefited from the Russian government's hacking of the Democratic National Committee servers. Two dozen Russians remain under indictment.

• Edward DeBartolo, Jr., was convicted of bribery—technically, failing to report a felony—when he paid $400,000 in hundred-dollar bills to Edwin Edwards, who was then the governor of Louisiana, for a gambling license. New England Patriots owner and Trump megadonor Robert Kraft personally lobbied him for the pardon, according to the White House's own statement.

• Trump's attempts to force Ukraine to do him a political favor were characterized by those seeking his impeachment as the solicitation of a bribe, and may yet be prosecutable under the federal bribery statute.

• Paul Pogue, a construction company owner who was convicted of tax fraud.

• As with Kerik and Milken, Pogue shares with Trump a disdain for paying his taxes. Unlike Trump, Pogue was not able to use the power of the presidency to prevent anyone in government from actually scrutinizing his tax returns for years at a time.

• David Safavian, an official at the General Services Administration, who was convicted of perjury for lying about his connections to the infamous lobbyist-criminal Jack Abramoff. Abramoff grossly overbilled his clients for lobbying services, in some cases actively lobbying both sides of an issue, and bribed lawmakers in one of the biggest scandals in recent political history.

• Prior to taking office, Trump avoided perjury charges by virtue of sudden lapses in a memory he often brags about. Since being elected, Trump and his staff have undertaken heroic measures to ensure that he is never placed under oath, with associates bluntly telling reporters they don't believe he'd be able to tell the truth even if he hadn't done anything he needed to lie about.

• Angela Stanton, a reality TV personality convicted of crimes related to her participation in an auto theft ring.

• Trump, whose devotion to TV as an art form is genuine and at times obsessive, seems to have a real soft spot for his fellow reality TV stars. He'd also likely approve of Stanton's first act after receiving her pardon, which was to plug her book on Twitter. 

Trump also spent the day renewing his attacks on the federal prosecutors who brought charges against his friend and political ally Roger Stone, the judge handling the case, and even the jurors who found Stone guilty. Trump bizarrely threatened to sue them himself—how, and for what, he didn't say. Today's pardons are widely seen as Trump preparing the way for a pardon of Stone himself, who is in a position to confirm large portions of the Mueller report on Trump's Russia ties. 

Why does this matter?

• Ignoring crimes if they benefit the leader is what dictators do.

• Promoting corruption, cheating on the taxes that other Americans pay, lying under oath, soliciting bribes, and undermining Americans' faith in elections are serious crimes no matter who does them.

• Whether a convicted criminal is shown mercy shouldn't depend on whether they have political or financial connections to the president.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to shake down public officials, in public.

Last week, Trump froze the state of New York out from participation in the federal Global Entry program. Officially, the move was intended to punish New York for refusing to share its DMV database with the Customs and Border Patrol agency and for passing laws to allow undocumented immigrants to get drivers' licenses. (There is no legal requirement that New York share its database, and noncitizens cannot use drivers' licenses as proof of citizenship.) 

But today, just before Trump met New York governor Andrew Cuomo, he offered a quid pro quo on Twitter: call off your investigations and lawsuits against me, and I'll stop punishing New York citizens.

It's illegal for a federal official to take government actions based whether or not they receive favorable treatment. It's also illegal to bribe or extort a public official.

Trump is extremely vulnerable to prosecution by New York state officials, since most of his known or suspected crimes—including his documented tax evasion, his Trump University scam, his illegal fake charity, and his use of his New York-based businesses as an illegal campaign pass-through to conceal hush money paid to his mistresses—took place in their jurisdiction.

"Fredo" is a reference to Fredo Corleone, a bumbling character in the Godfather movies. Gov. Cuomo's brother Chris Cuomo, a CNN host, took offense at being called that name, much to Trump's delight. Trump has spent much of his life trying to impress real-life organized crime figures. He frequently deploys mob-movie language in real-life. Trump himself has been compared to Fredo—who, like Trump, likes to brag about how smart he thinks he is—many times.

Why should I care about this?

• Illegal and corrupt actions done in broad daylight are still illegal and corrupt.

• Presidents with so much criminal exposure that they need to do things like this should probably resign to focus on their legal defense.

• This is why mob bosses make bad role models.

• No matter how hard he tries to be, the president is not above the law.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He threw himself under the bus in an attempt to keep anyone from seeing his financial records.

In an appeal filed today, Trump's personal lawyer William Consovoy asked the Supreme Court to decide whether Congress or law enforcement should be able to subpoena Trump's financial records. In his brief, Consovoy made the following claims:

It is the first time that Congress has subpoenaed personal records of a sitting president. It is the first time that Congress has issued a subpoena, under the guise of its legislative powers, to investigate the president for illegal conduct. And, it is the first time a court has upheld any congressional subpoena for any sitting president’s records of any kind.

Every single word of this is true. It's also legally compelling: the Supreme Court often hears cases when unique circumstances occur and there is no settled case law.

In other words, Trump's lawyer is conceding—correctly—that before Trump, no president had ever forced Congress to issue subpoenas like this, because no president's personal business records were ever suspected of implicating the president in crimes, and certainly not crimes of the magnitude that Trump is suspected of.

Obviously, this doesn't make Trump look good, which raises the question of why Trump allowed it. The answer seems to be that if the court agrees to hear the case, it will delay the enforcement of subpoenas for Trump's private books—and that nothing is more important than keeping the public from seeing those records.

Trump's tax and business records, which are the subject of the appeals the court is poised to consider, would allow investigation of a number of known or suspected crimes, including money laundering for Russian oligarchs, bank fraud, tax evasion, and the campaign finance crimes committed as part of Trump's attempts to pay hush money to his mistresses. They would also shed light on how much Trump is in debt to foreign entities, and which ones are paying him money now.

Why does this matter?

• Nobody fights this hard to conceal evidence that they did nothing wrong.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He made his final appeal to keep his tax returns secret.

Trump filed an appeal with the Supreme Court today in what will be, from a legal perspective, his last chance to keep his personal and business tax returns from law enforcement officials. 

There is overwhelming evidence that Trump got much of his inheritance from his father, amounting to the present-day equivalent of almost half a billion dollars, through tax fraud. He can no longer be prosecuted for those apparent crimes because the statute of limitations has expired, although the threat of an internal investigation forced his sister, a federal judge, to retire.

Congress is (separately) attempting to exercise its legal right to review his personal tax returns because Trump is widely suspected of having participated in money laundering for Russian oligarchs, among other crimes that would make him vulnerable to blackmail. But the present case, brought by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, is about his business returns. Trump is suspected of having laundered hush-money payments to women he had sex with through the Trump Organization.

There is a legal theory that a sitting president cannot be indicted, although this has never been tested in the courts. It is the prevailing interpretation at the Department of Justice, which is why the special counsel Robert Mueller did not seek Trump's indictment. Trump's argument in the tax case, which every lower court has emphatically rejected, is that not only can he not be indicted, he can't even be investigated, no matter how overwhelming the evidence is that he committed a crime.

In other words, Trump is arguing that while he remains in office, he is above the law, and that impeachment is the only remedy for a lawbreaking president. (He's also said it's illegal to impeach him because he hasn't been convicted of crimes.)

Neither the District Attorney nor Congress would be permitted to make Trump's tax returns public, except for anything that might be introduced as evidence in a criminal trial. Trump is the only president or presidential candidate since Richard Nixon to refuse to let the public verify that his finances are legitimate.

Why does this matter?

• Presidents are not above the law.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He claimed, in court, as clearly as he possibly could, that he is above all laws.

During the campaign, Trump famously declared that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York. This was a claim about how popular he imagined himself to be, not a legal argument.

Since taking office, Trump has leaned heavily on the assumption that a president can't be criminally prosecuted while in office—not something that has been tested in court, but a longstanding DOJ directive. (Trump has been implicated in any number of crimes, including as an unindicted co-conspirator in the crimes for which his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is now in prison.)

Today, his lawyer argued in a federal court that, as president, Trump is not only immune from prosecution for any crime—including specifically murdering someone in cold blood—but that he cannot even be investigated for any crime while in office. In fact, attorney William Consovoy argued, even third parties—in this case, the accounting firm that did Trump's taxes—cannot be approached for evidence related to any presidential crime whatsoever, no matter how serious.

Why should I care?

• Only someone who wants to be a dictator would try to claim the powers of a dictator.

• No matter how badly Trump may need for it to be true, the president is not above the law.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to imagine away the Constitution.

In a Cabinet meeting today, Trump gave a rambling speech that was emotional and untruthful even by his standards. In the process, he gave some insight into his views on the Constitution. In the middle of a lengthy tear about not being allowed to award himself a lavish no-bid contract to host the G7 summit, Trump said this:

George Washington, they say, had two desks: He had a presidential desk and a business desk.  I don’t think you people, with this phony emoluments clause — 

And, by the way, I would say that it’s cost me anywhere from $2 [billion] to $5 billion to be President — and that’s okay — between what I lose and what I could have made.  I would have made a fortune if I just ran my business.  I was doing it really well.  I have a great business.

In the real world, there are two emoluments clauses in the Constitution: a domestic clause that prevents Trump (or any public official) from using his office for personal profit, and foreign clause that prevents Trump from taking anything of value (like hotel fees) from foreign countries without permission from Congress.

Trump's claim about his supposed losses in the presidency is ridiculous, not least because there's no clear evidence that Trump had anything like that kind of money to lose. Trump's net worth is probably positive, and possibly quite high, but he has gone to such lengths to conceal or lie about the details about where his money comes from that there's no way of knowing for sure. (It is known that he owes hundreds of millions of dollars to various foreign banks.)

What tax documents have slipped through Trump's wall of secrecy have either showed him conspiring with his family to cheat on the taxes on the hundreds of millions of dollars his father gave him, or giving different numbers to tax officials than he gave to loan officers, or writing off $916 million dollars in other people's investment losses on properties that he ran into the ground.

There's not much to say for Trump's claim that he was "doing it really well" as a businessman, which he repeated over and over again during the meeting. He's declared bankruptcy six times, and even with a generous estimate of his wealth, has not earned more he would have simply by investing his lavish inheritance.

Why is this a bad thing?

• Presidents don't get to ignore the parts of the Constitution they don't like.

• The Constitution tells presidents what they can do, not the other way around.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He filed yet another lawsuit to keep Congress from investigating his taxes.

Once again, Trump sent his lawyers into court to try to prevent Congress from getting any information about his taxes. New York state law allows congressional committees to request state tax returns, which would include federal tax information.

Every president and major-party presidential candidate since President Nixon has made their tax returns public. Trump promised to as a candidate, but has spent his entire presidency fighting to keep them secret.

Trump has already been caught cheating on hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal taxes. Trump inherited almost half a billion dollars from his wealthy father through illegal schemes like setting up fake companies to do non-existent "repairs" on apartments owned by the family. When it finally came to light, it was too late for Trump to be prosecuted, although his sister was forced to resign from the federal bench in order to avoid an investigation.

Trump's tax returns could also provide clues about how much his businesses are engaged in money laundering for Russian oligarchs, and just how many years the supposedly wealthy Trump has avoided paying taxes altogether. Recent years' returns would show how just much Trump personally benefited from the tax cuts he signed. (Trump has claimed that they cost him money, which is an obvious lie.)

In related news, special counsel Robert Mueller—who did not investigate Trump's taxes—reminded Congress that Trump could be indicted after leaving office. (Trump immediately pretended that Mueller had not said this.)

Who cares?

• Cheating on taxes is a crime.

• Innocent people don't usually go to this kind of extreme lengths to conceal evidence of their innocence.

• Presidents aren't above the law.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He showed how worried he is about his tax returns being looked at.

Today, Trump took the highly unusual step today of asking to join, as a private citizen, his own administration's court battle with Congress over access to his tax returns. Earlier this year, House Ways and Means chair Rep. Richard Neal instructed the Treasury Department to provide that committee with copies of Trump's personal and business tax returns for the past six years. 

Legally, Congress's case against the Trump administration is extremely strong. By the plain text of the law, the IRS simply has to provide any requested returns, as long as they are viewed in a secure facility. Neal didn't even have to provide a reason—although he did anyway. 

Joining the suit as an individual doesn't really change Trump's chances of winning in the courts, although he may be hoping that it will let him keep things tied up in court until after the 2020 election. 

Ironically, Trump is one of the relatively small number of extremely wealthy Americans who appears to have genuinely broken tax laws, rather than simply taking advantage of legal tax shelters available to people with enough money and political influence. Much of Trump's inheritance, amounting to almost half a billion dollars, was funneled through tax avoidance schemes that ranged from highly questionable to outright fraud. (Even this doesn't really explain where Trump's current, post-bankruptcy fortune comes from.)

Why does this matter?

• Innocent people don't usually go to this kind of extreme lengths to conceal evidence of their innocence.

• Presidents aren't above the law.

• Ultra-rich people cheating on their taxes hurts everyone who doesn't cheat on their taxes.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He basically admitted that he thought judges obeyed the president who appointed them.

This morning, U.S. District judge Amit Mehta, who was appointed by President Obama, issued a strongly worded but totally expected ruling denying Trump's attempt to block one of his accounting firms from responding to a Congressional subpoena. Trump, who for one reason or another is desperate to avoid any scrutiny of his finances, had been forced to claim that Congress had essentially no oversight role where the presidency was concerned. Mehta cited Congressional investigations into presidents from James Buchanan to Barack Obama in a 41-page decision, and concluded:

It is simply not fathomable that a Constitution that grants Congress the power to remove a President for reasons including criminal behavior would deny Congress the power to investigate him for unlawful conduct—past or present—even without formally opening an impeachment inquiry. ...This court is not prepared to roll back the tide of history.

Trump responded by suggesting that the "crazy" legal opinion of "obviously, an Obama-appointed judge" didn't matter. This is part of Trump's traditional view of government, that he is personally owed "loyalty" from people he's given appointments or government jobs to—and where legal matters are concerned, personal protection.

Also today, Trump issued a last-minute order demanding that his former White House counsel Don McGahn not testify before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow. (McGahn has been the target of Trump's outrage for several weeks now, after the Mueller report portrayed him as defying Trump in order to save Trump from committing prosecutable acts of obstruction.)

Trump, who continues to insist that he has been "totally transparent," is also currently fighting subpoenas to release his tax returns to Congress, suing Deutsche Bank (to whom he owes at least $130 million) to prevent them from cooperating with an investigation into his finances, declaring the entire Mueller report to be subject to executive privilege, and insisting that he will appeal any attempt at impeachment to the Supreme Court. (It doesn't work that way, although Trump may honestly believe that he can force justices he appointed to rule in his favor if he can somehow get it there.)

Why is this a problem?

• The president is not above the law.

• In American democracy under the Constitution, the presidency is subject to oversight by Congress and rulings by the judiciary.

• People with nothing to hide don't spend this much time and effort trying to hide things.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He finally, once and for all, declared himself beyond any oversight or investigation.

Today, in a twelve-page letter to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone laid out Trump's philosophy on Congressional oversight of the presidency: there isn't any.

In practice, this is a delaying tactic to keep materials that the House has subpoenaed under wraps for as long as possible. The right of Congress to conduct oversight, by subpoenaing evidence and hearing testimony from White House staff, has been settled law since 1880 at the latest. 

But in principle, at least, Trump is simply saying that Congress can't act as a check and balance against the presidency when he doesn't want it to. By this standard, Congress would not have been able to investigate Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, the response to Hurricane Katrina, waste and fraud in wartime contracting, the infiltration of civil rights groups by the FBI, what the intelligence community knew or should have known about the September 11th attacks, how federal law enforcement deals with domestic terrorists, or really any other matter involving the presidency in any way. It also would have been powerless to conduct the investigations that led to the impeachment of Presidents Johnson or Clinton, or any executive branch official.

In addition to saying that Congress cannot subpoena executive branch records, Trump has also declared that as president, he cannot obstruct justice, cannot corruptly exercise their powers, cannot be indicted, cannot be forced to release his tax returns to Congress, can stop any investigation into crimes he feels himself to be "falsely accused" of, and cannot be impeached (as long as he feels he's "doing a great job"). 

He's also insisted that he has the authority to pardon himself for the crimes he says he cannot be investigated, indicted, or impeached for.

Why should I care about this?

• Presidents are not kings or dictators.

• The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, even when it's politically inconvenient for the president.