US Politics - Trump cancels summit having to do with North Korea

Just another brick in the wall...

Moggy wrote:Veering into conspiracy territory but could Trump have leaked this tax return himself? From what I saw this morning it doesn’t appear to present him in a bad light as he was actually paying tax. Was that the only year that he didn’t fiddle his books?

Presidents often leak things like this to bury more newsworthy stories.

As (I think) Dean Rusk once said - the State Department is the only ship that leaks from the top.

Moggy wrote:Veering into conspiracy territory but could Trump have leaked this tax return himself? From what I saw this morning it doesn’t appear to present him in a bad light as he was actually paying tax. Was that the only year that he didn’t fiddle his books?

A tax return from years ago, showing a decent level of tax paid but missing key areas of income? He's definitely responsible for leaking it.

Tomous wrote:

Moggy wrote:Veering into conspiracy territory but could Trump have leaked this tax return himself? From what I saw this morning it doesn’t appear to present him in a bad light as he was actually paying tax. Was that the only year that he didn’t fiddle his books?

A tax return from years ago, showing a decent level of tax paid but missing key areas of income? He's definitely responsible for leaking it.

With the result being it pushes this story about Rex Tillerson down the agenda:

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former head of Exxon Mobil, used an alias email address while at the oil company to discuss information related to climate change, the New York attorney general says.

Eric Schneiderman says Mr Tillerson used an account named "Wayne Tracker" for at least seven years.

Wayne is Mr Tillerson's middle name.

Mr Schneiderman is investigating whether Exxon misled investors and the public about climate change.

Almost certainly these tax returns come from Trump himself. After all they are stamped with the words "Client Copy", so they come from someone within the family circle.

And they are clearly designed to detract from other things. The argument about scrapping the AMT aside, they are spectacularly uninteresting. If all of Trump's taxes looked like this he would have released them ages ago. Their leaking now is either to move the story off something else or it may be to dampen the increasing pressure amongst the various Senate committees to include Trump's taxes in their Russia investigations.

Harry Ola wrote:Almost certainly these tax returns come from Trump himself. After all they are stamped with the words "Client Copy", so they come from someone within the family circle.

And they are clearly designed to detract from other things. The argument about scrapping the AMT aside, they are spectacularly uninteresting. If all of Trump's taxes looked like this he would have released them ages ago. Their leaking now is either to move the story off something else or it may be to dampen the increasing pressure amongst the various Senate committees to include Trump's taxes in their Russia investigations.

I'm wondering if Trump was going to release his taxes during the campaign, or shortly thereafter, but Bannon and Conway convinced him to hold them back with the express purpose that they would release snippets of them at opportune moments to drive the news cycle away from damaging stories.

This is all a bit far fetched to be honest. Trump releasing tax returns with strawberry float all of note in them is not going to detract from any other juicy story.

captain red dog wrote:This is all a bit far fetched to be honest. Trump releasing tax returns with strawberry float all of note in them is not going to detract from any other juicy story.

It's a tax return, and it dominated the news cycle last night and likely will today too, diminishing or nullifying the impact of the Tillerson story. In doing that, it has served its purpose.

It might if he keeps it ticking over for a bit with tweets. Oh look ....

twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/841966077005463553

Of course the bloke who got the taxes won a Pulitzer Prize, so I'm guessing some people have heard of him.

Oh and he's going after Snoop Dog:

twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/841967881516679168

What the sizzle? Why is Donnie Trizzle making beef with Snoop D-o-double-gizzle?

Harry Ola wrote:Oh and he's going after Snoop Dog:

twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/841967881516679168

He’s right. If Snoop had fired a gun at Obama he would be looking at jail time. As Snoop would if he fired a gun at Trump.

Firing toy guns at a clown dressed as Trump in a music video doesn’t really carry much jail time though.

It's almost like he forgets that he's the actual President and his words now carry more weight than they used to.

Photek wrote:Tax returns largely a damp squib, Sean hannity was worried tho calling it a felony to show them. I hate that guy so much!

Hannity really is a joke.
He's like a rabid Man U fan being in charge of BBC news and not realising that being Pro Man U 100% of the time and calling everyone who isn't unpatriotic and mentally ill may not be the best way to go.
He couldn't be more blinded by partisanship if he tried and yet he tries to claim he's fair and balanced.

Michael Bloomberg might be subject to an angry tweet storm sometime soon.

twitter.com/Impeach_D_Trump/status/841792308915912704

Bloomberg actually is a billionaire.

Has this been posted yet? It's strawberry floating amazing.

I just watched that episode this morning.

I had a look at Trump's twitter for the first time in a few weeks, the man is certifiable. Decent song from Snoop though.

Harry Ola wrote:Michael Bloomberg might be subject to an angry tweet storm sometime soon.

twitter.com/Impeach_D_Trump/status/841792308915912704

pfffft a failed Mayor and his fake news.

Bloomberg is the most overrated so called businessman in NY. Sad.

A loser who complains because no one can make deals as good as Donald. No one knows how to make deals better than Donald.