I think this is a real possibility.
You think his tax returns also would tell us a lot about his dealings with Russia, along with other foreign business ties?
Trump can't move
- Thread starter HighStickHarry
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I think this is a real possibility.
You think his tax returns also would tell us a lot about his dealings with Russia, along with other foreign business ties?
You just posted that he should find out what happened, fix it, punish the guilty, and move on.
This seems to assume that Trump isn't part of the guilty. What happens if he is though? What if he doesn't need to find out what happened because he knows exactly what happened?
Of course. But, I don't think that is the main motivator behind not releasing them. At least it wasn't before he became president. I could be wrong. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he has significant business dealings with Russia. It would definitely raise some suspicion even if we don't find out more about discussions between his people and Russian intelligence individuals.
I think there are a number of motivating factors. However, if those tax returns have harmful information in them regarding his dealings with Russia (as they most likely do), we aren't going to see them anytime soon.
Unless there are leaks.
I'm not convinced he has some master plan regarding Russia. I think there is a chance that he just has a man crush on Putin and that the Russians wanted him to win because they thought it would destabilize and weaken our government. Some of his people may have conspired with Russia to get him elected (maybe), but it is possible that he knows /knew nothing about those meetings.
Yes, that is possible. And it is also possible he knew and this goes much deeper than some want to believe.
There is still a lot of unknowns about all of this. The dots are there though. Can they be connected is the question.
Maybe there's something in them or maybe there's not, but there's no advantage for Trump to release his IRS information. Speculation is fun, but not releasing them isn't an indictment in itself.
If there wasn't anything politically hurtful in those tax returns, he would have already released them. Something is in those tax returns he doesn't want out, you can count on that.
Rumors have been swirling for a long time. He flat stated he had no deals in Russia (or with russia, as well I believe) and his son forcefully said it on CNN.
That's dumb. A Trump supporter would claim that if there was anything harmful in the IRS documents, some Obama disciple in the IRS would have leaked them by now. They're leaking everything else.
I'm trying to moderate my suspicion so he doesn't pull an Obama and just.. simply release the birth certificate and then all the birthers blink and pretend not to be embarrassed. If he releases the tax return and they rule out any business deals with the russians, ok. I still can't believe that he won't release them. There's a reason.
The IRS must have some pretty tight login protocol that would get someone fired and prosecuted if they logged into his file. Or something. I'm not a techie.
Let me get this straight. Your contention is that the the tax returns haven't been leaked, therefore, there is nothing harmful in them?
I don't know if there is or there isn't, but there is a reason that he won't go public with them (and hasn't for years).
Apparently that is his contention and it makes no sense at all.
There is something in those tax returns. If there wasn't, Trump would have already used them for his advantage.
My contention is that anywhere there's an information vacuum, people like to create conspiracies. Furthermore, it works both ways.
In order to buy into this theory though, one would have to assume the whole purpose in not releasing the tax returns is a political ploy to get his opponents to keep talking about them so that Trump will eventually release them in order to make his opponents look foolish. Rather Machiavellian.
Could that be what Trump is up to? Perhaps, if he thinks through his political moves that intensely (and if he does, mad respect to him). However, if that is what he was up to, why not release them before the election and use the foolishness of his opponents against them?
Could there possibly be any more compelling evidence than the last 24 hour news cycle?
So... now Biff is opposed to leaks?
That's a very good point. He would have released them - it's not like him. In trying to brainstorm a reason, he could just not want people to know who he owes a few hundred million (or a billion?) dollars to, as that would be a garden variety conflict of interest for the POTUS to be in hock to Wells Fargo for $100,000,000 and he can't manage his business to pay it off. He owes lots of people money and if it's disclosed that is its own independent scandal that the corporate media has just squatted on. Maybe that's been the reason. I don't think he's worth nearly what he says. I guess I'm saying is there could be other reasons for the non-disclosure that have nothing to do with colluding with a state enemy to steal American data.
Honestly, it could even be he just doesn't like being told what he has to do or suffers from an oppositional defiant disorder of some type.
We don't really have a clue. I'm on record as not liking his refusal and being suspiscious of it.
I agree, and this is just armchair psychology. But... if those showed he was an uber-success he'd have them bronzed and posted on the White House front gate. He flies around in a jumbo jet and paints his 3-feet long hair yellow. Do you really think he wouldn't wave those around if they were as impressive as people think?
More armchair psychology....sure....why not just enjoy waving around the symbols of success you have chosen, make up your own numbers AND enjoy thumbing your at all the peons that are demanding you release them? That's the big win....maybe the yugest.
All true. If there was $ on the table, my bet would be he's not nearly as successful as he's let on and he owes financial institutions a ton of money that no POTUS should owe anyone. The $10 billion number is fantasy. There is no telling what he's really worth.
An investment of $200 million in 1976 in the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index would have compounded to $23.2 billion by year-end 2015. That is considerably above Mr. Trump’s recent self-reported net worth of approximately $10 billion.
You had me until you said bronzed. Trump gold leafs his stuff.
Exactly.
He hasn't released them either because (1) there is something in them that he knows will hurt him politically or (2) your Machiavellian theory is at play.
Or
OR
You sure like setting up false dichotomies. There are other potential reasons. All kind of concerning, admittedly....but there are others.
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