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Over the past week, the White House has been completely overwhelmed by the Trump administration’s mushrooming medley of Moscow outrages. But to what Vox labeled the “3 Trump-Russia Scandals”—potential Trump collusion with Russia against the Hillary Clinton campaign, possible Trump lies about Michael Flynn’s outreach to the Putin government, and purported kompromat Russian intelligence may be holding over the American president—must be added a fourth: What are the conflicts of interest created by the Trump Organization’s extensive business ties to Putin’s kleptocratic petro-state?
With the Trump empire cut off by American banks, the family business has become dependent on Germany’s Deutsche Bank and investors from Russia. As Donald Trump, Jr. summed up in 2008:
“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
That alone provides one powerful reason why President Trump must release his tax returns to the American people. It’s not just a matter of following four decades of presidential practice. Simply put, we need to know if our president is being paid in rubles.
But there’s another reason President Trump must come clean about his finances. In recent days, Trump has promised he will soon unveil a “phenomenal” tax reform plan that calls for “lowering the overall tax burden of American businesses, big league.” But that isn’t the only promise The Donald has made to American taxpayers about his reform scheme. The self-proclaimed "voice" of "the forgotten men and women of our country”—the same man praised by family and friends as a “blue-collar billionaire”—made this pledge last year:
"It reduces or eliminates most of the deductions and loopholes available to special interests and to the very rich. In other words, it's going to cost me a fortune -- which is actually true -- while preserving charitable giving and mortgage interest deductions, very importantly." [Emphasis mine.]
To which the only appropriate response to the pathological liar-in-chief is: “Prove it.
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