Trump's tax returns suggest major risk to foreign influence
The New York Times report on President Donald Trump's tax returns shows the president has ties to suspect and authoritarian regimes all across the world.
The president received $1 million from Turkey, $3 million from the Philippines and $2.3 million from India as he made $73 million abroad in his first two years as the president.
In regards to Russia, Trump made $2.3 million on a Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, Russia. The New York Times said the pageant payday was "made possible, at least in part, by the Agalarov family, who would later help set up the infamous 2016 meeting between Trump campaign officials seeking “dirt” on Mrs. Clinton and a Russian lawyer connected to the Kremlin."
Even more alarming, Trump has $421 million left to be paid in addition to a nearly $75 million battle with the IRS. Bloomberg reports that much of that $421 million will be due during the next four years, a major issue if Trump wins re-election.
“The president has hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and the American public doesn’t know who owns that debt and in effect owns a substantial amount of the president’s financial future,” said deputy director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Donald Sherman via Bloomberg. “These are exactly the kinds of issues that the national security agencies examine when they perform security clearances.”
While it is perfectly okay for anyone to conduct business all across the world, it is different for the President of the United States.
When the president took office, he took an oath that he "will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of [his] Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Someone who is fighting for his financial lively hood, considering Trump is massively in debt, is not someone that can be trusted to act in the country's best interest. Especially, if he is relying on other country's money for income in order to pay off debt.
Trump's tax returns suggest that he is not capable of upholding the oath he took when he entered office and is a national-security risk to the United States of America.
More MeidasTouch stories:
Microsoft says Russian hackers behind majority of nation-state cyber attacks on company's customers
Actions speak louder than words, here is what Joe Biden has done for America in public office
Kanye West, Yeezy Apparel sued over intellectual theft
Two-time Barack Obama voter Clay Travis has conveniently turned into Trump's sports media puppet
Uber, Lyft put down $60 million to pass prop 22 in California, diminish app-based drivers' rights
About Ryan Lipton:
Ryan is a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill majoring in Business Journalism. He has written in the past for SB Nation's Silver and Black Pride, USA Today Sports Media Group, North Carolina Business News Wire, the Daily Tar Heel, and has worked with Ice Cube's BIG3 basketball league.