Trump is a haphazard businessman who has created a financial time bomb under himself

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Trump is a haphazard businessman who has created a financial time bomb under himself
Donald Trump at the launch of his presidential campaign in Trump Tower, Manhattan, on June 16, 2015.Christopher Gregory/Getty Images
  • President Donald Trump's image as a business magnate took a huge blow from leaked tax-return information published by The New York Times on Sunday.
  • The tax returns showed huge losses at Trump's businesses, meaning he has paid virtually no income tax for years, The Times reported.
  • They also showed that he personally owes about $421 million, which could increase by $100 million if he loses a battle with the IRS.
  • Trump's debts and refusal to divest himself of his business interests while in office mean that he is uniquely exposed to bribery and foreign influence, as his critics have noted.
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Donald Trump launched his bid for the presidency in 2015 with a typically showy stunt, descending from a golden elevator in Trump Tower in Manhattan to make the case that his business savvy made him an ideal candidate.

In his speech launching the campaign, Trump boasted that his vast wealth meant he was not susceptible to pressure from special interests.

"I don't need anybody's money. I'm using my own money," he told supporters, adding, "I'm really rich."

That image has since been badly eroded by a series of reports on the precarious state of his finances. The latest blow came on Sunday when The New York Times published an exposé based on tax-return documents spanning two decades.

Far from the seeming plutocrat of June 2015, Trump had for years been losing hundreds of millions of dollars he when launched his presidential bid, The Times reported.

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Such were the losses that in 11 of the 18 years of records obtained by The Times, Trump paid no income tax at all — including those just before his campaign began.

Trump has denied paying so little tax, and a Trump Organization spokesman asserted that he had in fact paid many millions. They have not offered any specifics.

The figures cited by The Times paint a picture of Trump as a celebrity on the wane, writing off $70,000 for his trademark hairdo as one of many business expenses.

They lend credibility to his former attorney Michael Cohen's claims that his presidential bid was a publicity stunt and that he didn't seriously expect to win.

But Trump's financial woes aren't just a personal matter — they affect the integrity of the US government and the democracy it oversees, especially as Trump did not fully divest himself of his business interests when he took office.

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Contained in the records, The Times said, is evidence of vast debt, including $421 million for which Trump is personally liable, due over the next four years.

Should he lose a long-running battle with the IRS over whether he improperly claimed a $72.9 million tax refund, he could end up owing a further $100 million, with interest and penalties.

Combined, the president could find himself on the hook for more than half a billion dollars.

Far from being immune to outside financial pressure, Trump appears uniquely vulnerable.

The records obtained by The Times showed that Trump's income from several of his businesses sharply increased after his victory in 2016, with foreign powers among those vying for favor as they patronize his real-estate and hospitality businesses.

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They showed that Trump relied on income from abroad, including interests in Turkey and the Philippines, both ruled by autocratic strongmen.

Though Trump has claimed that his enormous wealth is a rare source of strength, it's hard to see his indebtedness as anything but the opposite.

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