White House says report of Trump's alleged tax fraud actually just shows that 'everything he touches turns to gold'
A bombshell report by The New York Times showed that President Trump may have engaged in fraud to maximize his collected wealth from his father's real estate business. Both Trump and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed the story as merely "boring" on Wednesday.
Sanders called the report a "totally false attack based on an old recycled news story." When asked what, specifically, was false, Sanders dodged. "I'm not going to sit and go through every single line of a very boring 14,000-word story," she said. She said the one thing the article did get right about Trump is that his father, Fred Trump, "had a great deal of confidence in him ... his father went on to say that 'everything [Trump] touched turned to gold.'"
She insisted that the claims in the story had already been shown to be completely inaccurate and "defamatory," but did not expand on any particular portion of the story that was untrue. Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey asked whether Trump's tax returns are still under audit, since Trump said that was the reason he couldn't make them public while running for office. "A number of his taxes" still are, said Sanders, noting that he still doesn't have "any plans" to release his returns. Watch the moment below, via ABC News. Summer Meza
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.
-
Will there be peace before Christmas in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Discussions over the weekend could see a unified set of proposals from EU, UK and US to present to Moscow
-
Quiz of The Week: 6 – 12 DecemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures A man's best friend, the elephants in the room, and more
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
-
Ex-FBI agents sue Patel over protest firingspeed read The former FBI agents were fired for kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest for ‘apolitical tactical reasons’
-
Trump unveils $12B bailout for tariff-hit farmersSpeed Read The president continues to insist that his tariff policy is working
-
Trump’s Comey case dealt new setbackspeed read A federal judge ruled that key evidence could not be used in an effort to reindict former FBI Director James Comey
