Tax revelation could blot Trump's business brand

The bombshell revelations that President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax the year he entered the White House served to raise doubts about Trump's self-image as a shrewd and successful businessman.

Trump has worked for decades to build an image of himself as a hugely successful businessman — even choosing "mogul" as his Secret Service code name. But The New York Times on Sunday revealed that he paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he won the presidency, and in 2017, his first year in office. He paid no income taxes whatsoever in 10 of the previous 15 years, largely because he reported losing more money than he made, according to the Times, which obtained years' worth of tax return data that the president had long fought to keep private.

Compared to other scandals the president has faced, Jonathan Lemire, a White House Reporter for the Associated Press, thinks this one is easier to digest.

"Your average American wakes up in the morning, doesn't think about Russia or Ukraine. And though he or she might see the headlines. They don't have much of a bearing on what he is doing," Lemire said. "Every American does or should pay income tax. And I think there are a lot of Americans out there who pay far more than 750 dollars, who have a lot less money than President Trump."

The documents are also providing a new opening for his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, on the eve of the first presidential debate.

Roughly half of Americans pay no federal income taxes, but the average income tax paid in 2017 was nearly $12,200, according to the IRS.

The Biden campaign's online store already selling stickers saying "I paid more income taxes than Donald Trump" on Sunday night.

"Democrats already in the 24 hours or so since the story released, painting the president as someone who has lost an extradinary amount of money as a business man. Which seems to undercut his image as the art of the deal salesman," Lemire added.

The Biden campgaingn recently stepped up efforts to paint Trump as a charlatan who has lied to his working-class supporters. In contrast, Biden has tried to highlight his own middle-class upbringing.

The election, Biden has said, is "Scranton vs. Park Avenue," pitting Biden's boyhood hometown in Pennsylvania against Manhattan, where Trump built his branding empire and reality television career.

Bill Barrow, a National Political Reporter for the Associated Press, said Trump's taxes could be an issue that sticks around through Novemeber and has an impact on the results.

"It doesn't take much on in elections that turn on the margins. It could stick enough to matter," Barrow said. "Now, is everyone in his base going to buy that or believe that or be swayed? No, but this is a president who won by cumulatively about 80,000 votes spread across three states. That's where his Electoral College majority came from. There's not a lot of wiggle room, particularly for a man who runs a base strategy."

Since entering the White House, Trump has broken with tradition set by his predecessors by not only refusing to release his tax returns but by waging a legal battle to keep them hidden. The Times report suggests why that might have been so. It reported that many of Trump's top businesses are losing money, even as those losses have helped him shrink his federal tax bill to essentially nothing.

Trump seems sure to face heavy financial pressures from the enormous pile of debt he has absorbed. The Times said the president appears to be responsible for $421 million in loans, most of which will come due within four years. On top of that, a $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower in New York will come due in 2022.