Trump is a crook and a con man, not that that needed illuminating for anyone.

The two main arguments from die-hard supporters:

1. Oh well! He's still better than Biden!
2. That's why he's smart! A genius businessman! That's why he's $1.1 BILLION in debt (maybe more)! A true billionaire!

I obviously understand supporting the person who best fits your ideology, and that's fine, but even then I think many are closing their eyes and turning their heads when they vote for him... But how can you still support a guy who's a clear-cut crook? A guy who paid 87x more for sex, while married, than he did in taxes in 17(!) years? When is it morally wrong? Is being morally wrong even a concern anymore?

And the fact that he and many others, including massive companies such as Amazon, have been able to get around paying $0 (or a few hundred bucks) in taxes is terribly wrong and a shameful practice. Major tax reform is obviously needed, and it has been for decades. Note: This doesn't excuse Trump or any others who have abused the system. Far from it.

It’s funny how this type of thing would destroy the career of a normal politician, but for Trump it may not even end up as the worst story of the week.

$75,000 in deductions from just haircuts in one year though?

The NY Times article is obviously partisan. After all these years it's easy to see when a journalist is really acting like an activist and is is in "Attack Trump" mode. Whenever that's the case you can presume they likely cherry picked the parts that made Trump look bad.

And any potential "good things" somehow outweighs tax fraud to make all of this acceptable? It's not about looking bad. Jeez.

Based on my understanding of the NY Times article, he overpaid his tax liabilities to defer to future years, which is like giving the government interest-free loan.

2016: owed $750 legally (under Obama presidency tax code), paid $1 million and did not ask for it back, but roll over to future years
2017: owed $750 legally (under Obama presidency tax code still, Trump tax code changes did not go into effect until 2018), paid $4.2 million and did not ask for it back, but roll over to future years.

Also his 400k salary/year presidential salary being donated to government agencies is further overpayment of what he legally owed for taxes.

I'm under the impression everything was legal.

Billionaires have an advantage with taxes because they can hire a team full of elite level accountants to get out of them while small business owners can't. This is intentional as the politicians are financially backed by the same billionaires, who scratch their back in return with donations or owning media companies that are biased in their favor. One of the best examples being Bezos who is one of the top political spenders and owns Washington Post in return for the various ways they help him have advantage over small businesses and have a monopoly, such as paying way less taxes compared to Amazon's income than them. It's wrong but the problem isn't Trump for playing the cards that were designed for people like him to exploit and if he didn't do it he would most likely be putting himself at a disadvantage compared to his competitors that are.

The NYT revelation pretty much confirms what I thought of Trump. He is an elite elevated by Hollywood fame. That reality TV show he starred in propped up a fictional image of a self-made businessman. He used it to his advantage to trick consumers and voters alike into believing in the products he's selling based on his Hollywood-made image. He is also an ardent nepotism practitioner. Such a pompous personality.

First debate is tonight.

Sept. 29: Presidential debate #1 (Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio)
Oct. 7: VP debate (The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah)
Oct. 15: Presidential debate #2 (Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, Florida)
Oct. 22: Presidential debate #3 (Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee)

Looks like Russiagate was Hillary's idea

Excited for tonight. No interest in watching these usually but Trump v Biden is an unmissable event.

Did Hillary also arrange the Trump Tower meeting between Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort and the Russian lawyer, Roger Stone's communications with Wikileaks, and Manafort's dealings in Russia?

Biden and Harris released their 2019 tax returns today. Trump is the only presidential candidate who has not released their tax returns since Nixon.

One thing both sides can agree on is that a lack of crowd is a good thing. Otherwise Bloomberg would have bought them all again.

One thing both sides can agree on is that a lack of crowd is a good thing. Otherwise Bloomberg would have bought them all again.

Two million!

Weird that Biden didn’t mention the Republicans flip-flopping on the supreme court in just four years.

Now Trump is yelling at Chris Wallace.

Trump is such a savage lol.

Biden hasn’t spoken for like five minutes.

This is prime tv lol.

Biden needs to tag in Bernie during the commercial break.

I don’t have cable so I am not watching the debate, but it sounds like Trump is winning by using his usual tactic of talking louder than his opponent?

Yep. Biden looks like a rabbit.

Same here but also because I am not interested in hearing Trump shout his way around.