Pelosi says Trump debts raise 'national security question'

(Image credit: Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

published 29 September 2020

Democrats on Monday harshly criticized President Trump over a New York Times report that he paid nearly no federal income tax for more than a decade, accusing him of gaming the system to avoid paying his fair share. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) called Trump a "freeloader." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) noted that Trump appeared in the report to be more than $400 million in debt, and said that raised a "national security question" because a foreign lender could have leverage over him. The White House called the Times report a partisan hit job. Trump at first called the report "totally fake news," then shifted and accused the newspaper of illegally obtaining his financial information. Trump also tweeted that he paid "many millions of dollars in taxes." Republican lawmakers were largely silent on the report.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.