The Trump Tax Setup The means being used to defeat him are the best argument for his candidacy.By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr

Posted By on October 5th, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trump-tax-setup-1475621927

Worth a second glance is Rudy Giuliani defending Donald Trump in response to the media’s ridiculously disingenuous reaction to a leaked Trump tax return for 1995.

That return shows a giant net operating loss (NOL) of $916 million from the turmoil that engulfed Mr. Trump in the early 1990s. This loss Mr. Trump may—may—have used to offset his prodigious TV and licensing earnings in later years.

It was Mr. Giuliani, in a case that hasn’t stood the test of time, who indicted Michael Milken and brought down Drexel Burnham Lambert, collapsing the junk-bond market on which Mr. Trump was depending to refinance his then-tottering, recession-battered empire of Atlantic City casinos, New York’s Plaza Hotel and the Eastern Airlines Shuttle (renamed Trump Shuttle).

 Trump properties began missing debt payments, some of which Mr. Trump personally guaranteed. By early 1992, Businessweek estimated that Mr. Trump was personally underwater by $1.4 billion.

A good 15 years later, Dale Black, CFO of Trump Entertainment Resorts, was still admitting that “absent a large change in income, we’re not going to pay cash taxes for the foreseeable future with the NOLs that we have.” It didn’t help. Last year the company was back in bankruptcy, though Mr. Trump’s stake by now had been whittled down to 10% (and that mostly in exchange for continued use of his name and likeness). Now owned by Carl Icahn, the last Trump-era casino in Atlantic City—the Taj Mahal—is finally slated for permanent closure this coming Monday.

Books have been written about the Trump casino disaster. It used to be the press’s business to check out claims. Now it’s satisfied to trumpet the possibility that Mr. Trump used the losses to offset his income-tax liability in later years.

It’s all part of a show, ably directed by the Clinton campaign, whose theme is not only that Mr. Trump is unfit to be president, but you are déclassé, a lowlife, a sucker if you vote for him.

But it’s also true that Mr. Trump hasn’t done even a passable job of late. To the observation (allegation? complaint?) that he received a loan from his father, how does he not say, Yes, that’s how businesses get started in America, with loans from family and friends. CONTINUE AT SITE

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