Trump-his elephant in the room

As Presidential candidate, so far they have not been able to throw enough mud at Donald Trump to make it stick. There is still the problem over his refusal to release his tax details. And therein lies the elephant in the room.

Unlike a usual politician who has a job to show an income and investments which detail identifiable returns, to be really wealthy one has to work the system which uses whatever is legal even if it could be seen morally reprehensible such as buying up losses. Or to minimise tax by making losses on one hand to improve performance from another. Can anyone believe you really can make losses on a casino? A really successful multi-millionaire can make sure that very little tax is paid and of course, Trump falls into that category. Would you think he would not have employed blind trusts or have overseas accounts in tax havens routing earnings through tax-free jurisdictions?

It would be surprising were Trump not be using all of these techniques. Any of his colleagues would think him fairly incompetent were he not enmeshed in a wide range of schemes. The problem is that 95% at least of the voters probably don’t have the money enough to take advantage of not paying tax and when, as they will, they find out that Trump has been seen to be, as they see it, ripping of the system, they will probably not be very pleased.

None of this will probably come out before the Presidential elections so he will need to keep fighting to keep his financial portfolio secret. I’m sure he has a team of financial people now working around the clock to make all this look more palatable to the public, or putting in at least fire walls to shield himself. Problem is of course that this will finish up with him not looking like the very successful billionaire he likes to portray. On the other hand it’s either one or the other and the person on the street can probably relate to someone not being that wealthy while finding it more difficult to stomach a tax avoiding President. Or not.