Tax revelations dog Trump campaign as Election Day nears

(Image credit: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)

last updated 4 October 2016

Donald Trump enters the final five weeks before Election Day facing allegations that he used legal loopholes to avoid paying up to 18 years of income taxes. That's according to what appear to be three pages of his highly-sought tax returns, published over the weekend in The New York Times.

Hillary Clinton's campaign has seized on the opening, slamming Trump's reputation for being a brilliant businessman by highlighting his loss of nearly a billion dollars in a single year:

Trump's campaign has stated its candidate paid hundreds of millions in other taxes, like sales and real estate, and his surrogates insist the move shows his "genius." But the revelation follows a weak presidential debate by Trump as Clinton leads in election projections. "We are getting into the homestretch of this horserace to the glue factory of American Exceptionalism," Politico's Glenn Thrush wrote Monday, "and the events of the next week to 10 days will likely be Trump's final shot at repairing his damaged candidacy."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.