Trump Was Smart on his Taxes

By Jonah Goldberg

Monday, October 03, 2016

The New York Times story that Donald Trump might not have paid any federal income taxes for a very long time puts this #NeverTrump columnist in a bind. While it may have been wrong for Hillary Clinton to say half of Trump’s supporters are “deplorable” people, I firmly believe that 100% of his supporters are rallying to a deplorable candidate (though many of them are doing so because they find the prospect of a Clinton presidency even more deplorable).

The list of things I am happy to criticize Trump about is very long, from the countless offensive, deceitful and stupid things he has said, to the way he has run his businesses, his foundation and his campaign. But one thing not on the list: his effort to avoid paying federal income taxes — so long as he did it entirely legally and ethically.

In the first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump, there was a bit of foreshadowing. Clinton noted that on the tax returns he had provided to get his casino license, they showed he had paid no income taxes, to which Trump replied, “That makes me smart.”

Clinton powered through the interruption with her rehearsed talking points. “So if he's paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health.”

To which I say: That’s right. And, so what?

If your answer to that “So what?” is that our tax code is a mess and needs to be fixed so that the mega-rich pay more taxes, that’s fine. I may disagree with your ideas of tax reform or what constitutes just levels of taxation. But that’s a completely legitimate point of view.

If your answer is that he’s a hypocrite of some kind for criticizing President Obama for “only” paying an effective tax rate of 20.5% or bemoaning the fact that half of Americans don’t pay income taxes at all, you’ve got a point as well.

But if your answer to that “So what?” is that Donald Trump did something wrong, or is selfish, by paying as little income tax as he could legally get away with, that’s preposterous. Do any of you willingly give more money to the IRS than you’re legally obliged to? If the answer is no, does that mean you’re a scrooge?

That’s certainly the spin Clinton was going for: “That means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health.” And it’s definitely how a lot of liberal pundits spun it as well.

And that’s odd. In 2012, Mitt Romney famously (or infamously) derided the “47%” of Americans who pay no income tax, badly mangling a not very good conservative talking point at the time.

Liberals angrily pointed out that while many poor and working-class folks may not pay federal income taxes, they still pay sales taxes, and in many cases, property taxes, state and local taxes, and the corporate taxes that are ultimately passed on to the consumer.

Trump pays all of those taxes, too. The Trump campaign responded to the Times story with a blistering attack on the newspaper (Not wholly unfounded, either. The Times almost certainly broke the law, or abetted someone else’s law-breaking by releasing his tax return information). And while the campaign did not actually deny any of the facts in the story, it did note that the real estate mogul “has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions."

We can’t verify that without seeing Trump’s full tax returns, but with the exception of the bit about the charitable contributions, there’s good reason to assume they’re telling the truth. Why should paying those taxes be good enough for the 47% but inadequate for Donald Trump?

There’s an answer to that question, of course: The laws in this country are written in such a way that the rich and powerful can get away with stuff that the rest of us can’t. By all means, condemn the laws, not the people following them.