Top News Today –
Trump Tax Return
Leaked By Donald Trump?
The White House is crying foul after MSNBC revealed the 2005 Donald Trump tax return during a prime-time Tuesday night special. However, is “The Donald’s” raucous all just a ruse?
Top News Today
It was billed as the political scoop of the year (so far). MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow got her hands on the 2005 Trump tax return via an anonymous source and advertised that she would reveal all in the 9pm hour. This was delicious news for the political world since Trump himself has consistently refused to release his taxes from any year.  The news was also a ratings bonanza for Maddow since millions of people from around the world tuned in to hear the salacious financial dirt they’ve assumed Trump has been hiding.
Sadly, Maddow’s expose’ was a big fat dud, as the Trump tax return revealed a few boring facts and nothing sinister or at all exciting.
The 2 pages of an IRS 1040 form showed that in 2005, Trump earned $150 million and paid roughly $38 million in taxes. There was no surprise reveal of secret payments to or from Russia. There was no proof of an offshore bank account or proof that Trump was worth less than he has claimed. The MSNBC report seemed less of an enormous scoop and more like a tiny tidbit.
However, for anyone who tuned in Tuesday night and was left disappointed from not witnessing a treasure-trove of lies and illegalities in the Trump tax return, you may have missed the real scoop after all.
Who leaked the Trump tax return???
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Donald Trump’s 2005 tax return by CNBC.com on Scribd
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Top News Today
David Cay Johnston, author of “The Making Of Donald Trump,” is the journalist who received “The Donald’s” taxes from an anonymous source. Now, Johnston is saying he strongly believes it was Donald Trump himself who leaked the documents to him.
According to Johnston, he obtained the tax documents by mail, then shared his findings exclusively with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
“By the way, let me point out that it’s entirely possible that Donald Trump sent this to me. Donald Trump has, over the years, leaked all sorts of things,” Johnston, the founder of DCReport.org said.
Johnston’s theory was bolstered by a marking on the second page of the tax return that was stamped “Client Copy,” which lead Johnston to believe he was holding Trump’s own copy.
After all, Donald Trump has posed as his own publicist under the names “John Miller” and “John Barron,” so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to believe that Trump himself would leak the boring 2-page tax document himself.
If Trump did, in fact, leak the tax report himself, he smartly chose a year that presented him in the best financial shape and hopefully put to rest any doubts of his monetary wealth. Additionally, Trump is now able to successfully paint himself as a “victim” whom the media continuously picks on.
For Rachel Maddow, her Trump tax return “Breaking News” was a fizzle. However, for Donald Trump, it is likely a win-win.
If only someone could get their hands on Trump’s tax returns from 2010 and beyond. Now THAT would likely be big news and an insight into what Trump is trying to hide!
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For Rachel Maddow, her Trump tax return “Breaking News” was a fizzle. However, for Donald Trump, it is likely a win-win. […]
Yep. You nailed it DJ. Your entire post is on point.
See THIS is what happens when a an otherwise pretty savvy news person like Rachel Maddow and the (mostly) HYPE news network that she works for builds up a following and then gets full of themselves and decides to risk all credibility by teasing, Over-sensationalizing and then FAILING to deliver on the anticipated "bombshell."
When my cousin called me last evening (BEFORE Rachel's show came on) to inform me of the "Breaking News" concerning Trump's tax returns, I smelled a rat. I suspected that Trump had leaked it himself. And I cautioned my cousin NOT to get too happy about what Rachel may possibly have UNTIL we see it.
Unfortunately, my suspicions were born out. Despite all the hype prior to the show, Rachel actually didn't have much at all, as DJ noted. She had a 2 page summary client copy of Trump's 2005 taxes that frankly did NOT answer the most significant question- the SOURCE of Trump's income.
Shame on Rachel for allowing herself to get played by Trump. And shame on Rachel and MSNBC for trying to play Us (her viewers) for the sake of ratings.
Everything you said is spot on Truth. Rachal Maddow got played by Trump. He put the taxes out that made him look as rich as he says so maybe everybody will stop talking about it after they saw nothing there. See Trump is a idiot but he's no dummy. People need to stop underestimating him because he plays dirty and knows how to play people. Today Rachal is looking like the fool while Trump is sitting pretty like a perfect angel that everybody keeps picking on. We all god played by Donald Trump.
SandraRose:
If Maddow had done her homework, she would have known that The Washington Post reported on the very same 2005 tax returns last year.
Maddow’s Epic flop is being compared to Geraldo Rivera’s 2-hour live special on Al Capone’s empty vault in 1986. Reaction from the White House was swift and accused Maddow of breaking the law.
“You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago,” a White House official gloated in a statement Tuesday night.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., thanked Maddow for proving his father is not a tax cheat.
[…]
See she fell right into their trap and they are gloating. All the credibility she built up having real facts against Trump is erased. She is back at square one today.
On Point. On Point. On Point. BD.
"All the credibility she built up having real facts against Trump is erased. She is back at square one today."
What she needs to do at the very beginning of her show tonight is a full-throated Mea Culpa. Acknowledging her Colossal error in her MIS-handling of the leaked taxes is required if she hopes to regain some of the credibility she had worked so long and hard to attain only to throw it away last night. .
I believe Trump sent the tax returns to take attention off the Obama wire Tap Lie. Look at what every body is talking about. And apparently the FBI is issuing a statement tomorrow…they need to get folks off focus before that hits
"Trump attorney challenges Scarborough to prove Trump team is behind tax leak"
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney on Wednesday challenged MSNBC host Joe Scarborough to prove his assertion that the “Trump camp” was behind the leak of two pages from the president’s 2005 tax returns.
Another MSNBC host, the commentator Rachel Maddow, devoted her show on Tuesday night to the returns, which showed that Trump paid about $38 million in federal income taxes on $150 million in income in 2005, after writing off more than $100 million in losses. After Maddow publicized her plans to detail some Trump tax returns on Twitter ahead of the show, the White House released a statement acknowledging as much.
The reporter David Cay Johnston, who said he received the returns in the mail, suggested on Maddow’s show Tuesday that Trump may have leaked them himself. Some commentators have wondered the same thing aloud, noting that the story might be overall good for Trump, since it showed that he paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes. The leak also did not include the parts of the returns that detail where his income came from or where he had invested.
Scarborough has embraced a similar theory, and he aired it Wednesday morning on Twitter.
“This one tax return is not bad for him because he cherry picked one return from over a decade ago and had it leaked to the press,” Scarborough wrote on Twitter. “The Trump camp released one positive tax return to distract from Russia hearings and the Trumpcare meltdown. That's painfully obvious.”
That prompted the challenge from longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who tweeted, “I know who has his taxes. You better have proof to back up your claim and big mouth!”
In response, Scarborough tweeted: "1. Read the First Amendment 2. Save your dumb thug routine for someone who gives a damn." – Politico
Rachel Maddow Turned a "Scoop" on Trump’s Taxes Into a Cynical, Self-Defeating Spectacle
Excerpt:
The longer Maddow went on, ever deeper into a conspiratorial thicket, the clearer it became that whatever tax returns Maddow had, they weren’t as juicy as the ones she was talking about. If she had anything that damning, she would have shared them from the start. TV is a ratings game, but an entire episode about highly damaging tax returns is just as likely to get you great ratings as milking the possibility that you have highly damaging tax returns and less likely to get you compared to Geraldo Rivera.
Maddow even went so far as to hold the tax returns back until after the first commercial break, as if we were watching an episode of The Bachelor and not a matter of national importance—because we weren’t, in fact, watching a matter of national importance, just a cable news show trying to set a ratings record.
Trump’s tax returns, whatever information they happen to contain, constitute a major scoop. Maddow’s social media team ensured the highest possible ratings for that scoop. But if ever a story should have been delivered in a stentorian, fuddy-duddy, nonpartisan manner, this was it. In positioning it as a grand revelation, a vital step in comprehending Trump’s corruption, MSNBC created an exceedingly cynical spectacle. By playing into the network’s loyal liberal audience’s fantasy that there exists a Trump silver bullet, it instead delivered Trump a positive news cycle—the guy pays taxes! Who knew!—amidst the debacle of the American Health Care Aact, along with more evidence that the media is aligned against him.
[…] – Slate.
As usual, we Liberals start eating our own if we don't see OR get exactly what we want, when we want it. PEOPLE, IT IS NOT ABOUT THE 2 PAGES and I think those on BOTH sides calling Rachel "Geraldo" are effing asswipes that can't see the big picture. This is about all those new eyes that tuned in and got info they'd never heard before…it's layers. I suggest you watch her opening AGAIN. Those are the questions that we should be pressuring 45 for the answers to. So sorry you didn't get your "gotcha" tv and may have to think a little harder. Enough Said…
Credibility: "the quality of being trusted and believed in" – Merriam-Webster
Hype: "to stimulate, excite, or agitate; to promote or publicize extravagantly" – Merriam-Webster
Slate:
At 7:36 p.m. Tuesday, Rachel Maddow tweeted, “BREAKING: We've got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC. (Seriously),”
Did Maddow have Donald Trump’s tax returns or just One of the Trumps’ tax returns? Could this be it, the tax return that would bring down the Donald? If this was it, why wasn't MSNBC cutting into its programming, INSTEAD OF running a countdown clock to Maddow’s show? […]
(On a side-note)…….
Can't speak as a "liberal" because I do not now, nor have I ever identified as, a "Liberal." In fact, depending on the subject matter, I can take a liberal, or moderate or conservative position. But I can say that in an ideal world, I identify mostly as a Conservative Democrat (truly an endangered species). Count me among those Americans who feel that no one is served well by "gotcha" tv..
Just give me the facts, spare me the hype, and I'm good.
Thurs. March 16, 2017
Maddow: People disappointed by Trump story expected too much
NEW YORK — Rachel Maddow says that if people felt let down by her story about President Donald Trump’s 2005 tax document it’s more because of the weight of expectation than anything she did.
The MSNBC host found herself in the odd position Wednesday of defending herself from criticism following one of the biggest-ever scoops for her show. Maddow’s show revealed, through reporter David Cay Johnston, two pages of tax return information that showed Trump earned $150 million in 2005 and paid $38 million in income taxes that year. Trump has steadfastly refused to release his tax returns.
Maddow’s tweet less than 90 minutes before her show that “we’ve got Trump’s tax returns” set off a social media frenzy. Although a subsequent tweet specified it was only two pages from one year’s returns, expectations were sky high. Maddow told the AP that she never misrepresented what she had.
“Because I have information about the president doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a scandal,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that it’s damning information. If other people leapt to that conclusion without me indicating that it was, that hype is external to what we did.”
Source: Washington Post
WashPost Reader:
Wonderful spin – the show hyped the tax return story prior to running, generating higher ratings and likely new viewers. Then, the tax return story turns out NOT to be the "smoking gun" people thought it would be, and Ms. Maddow blames her viewers for expecting too much.
Then, she doubles down and claims that Trump is obsessed with his taxes?!?! I think Trump is an empty suit, and a presidential embarrassment. But, I also try to be fair-minded. Ms. Maddow and MSNBC just conned their viewers, and then put the blame on them. That is shameful and, frankly, bad for business. [..]