Between a rock and a hard place

With a Presidential election coming up, the fight by Trump to keep his tax returns out of the public eye continues. As I posted before he even became President, these returns would always come back to haunt him, not necessarily because they show any illegality but they would certainly have to illustrate what any wealthy business person would do to minimize their tax: and Mr. and Mrs. average might be appalled.

Lesson 101 for how to be wealthy is not to own much in your own name but structure so ownership is elsewhere but you have control. Having some of these ventures go into bankruptcy might help you as a Trump but screw over other investors. All of which would show that you yourself are not all that wealthy in your own right which the average punter would probably not understand.

Trump came along without previous political mileage and approached running the country as a businessman might. That includes factoring in risk and living with the consequences which might have worked out well pre-pandemic but how does it look if a policy is to just accept your (human) losses and look after the rest? Even if people could support his business approach, an opposition could have a field day with this sort of information and hence the fight to now again keep these returns under wraps at least until after the Presidential election. At least there remain plenty of distractions.

On the other side the voters might not like what they see but if in a presidential election there is Biden on one side at an age and in a state where he could easily be manipulated and an unliked Trump on the other side, the voters are simply left between a rock and a hard place…