Few things are as certain in life as "death and Donald Trump not paying his taxes," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. "Last night we learned The New York Times obtained Donald Trump's taxes for the last 20 years," and it appears "Trump is in some deep W2-doo." Trump evidently paid only $750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017, thanks to iffy accounting and staggering losses at his core businesses. Worse, "he is personally responsible for loans and other debt totaling $421 million," he added. "Somebody out there — and we don't know who — has got the leader of the free world by the short hairs. If he gets re-elected, Air Force One's gonna end up on Pawn Stars."
Still, Noah said, "the craziest thing to me is that he took a $70,000 deduction on his hair! Because to me it now looks like two crimes might have been committed here: One is Trump's tax evasion, and two is whoever swindled Trump into paying $70,000 for what they did to him."
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.
"The crazy part isn't that he spent $70,000 on his hair, it's that clearly $70,000 wasn't enough," Jimmy Fallon joked at The Tonight Show. "When it comes to avoiding taxes, Trump knows every loophole. For instance, on next year's taxes he plans on claiming his coronavirus response as a total loss." But "the most damaging part of the report" is it shows Trump's a terrible businessman, Fallon said. "Since 2000, Trump's reported over $300 million in losses just from his golf courses. It would have been a better investment if Trump opened up a Radio Shack inside a Blockbuster inside a Sears."
"Let's just say Melania's gonna be pretty pissed when she learns what half of negative-$431 million is," Late Night's Seth Meyers added. Watch below. Peter Weber
-
'A symbol of the faceless corporate desire'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Say farewell to summer at these underrated US lakesThe Week Recommends Have one last blast
-
Truck drivers are questioning the Trump administration's English mandateTalking Points Some have praised the rules, others are concerned they could lead to profiling
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
