For the can’t-make-this-up-if-we-tried file, journalist David Cay Johnston is calling out Donald Trump Jr. because the younger Trump rounded up in his tweet on the amount of dollars his father paid in taxes:
Trump WH confirms my report, but fakes numbers. Trump paid $36.5m income tax, not $38 & not $40m Don Jr. claims. False WH statements. Sad!
— David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) March 15, 2017
Thank you Rachel Maddow for proving to your #Trump hating followers how successful @realDonaldTrump is & that he paid $40mm in taxes! #Taxes
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 15, 2017
L. O. L. That’s all he’s got? Does he get how ridiculous he sounds right now?
Lol, this tweet is sad.. and pathetic. If this is your best claim, you already lost the argument. https://t.co/skI8iXP6wp
— Politics Matter (@Politics_Matter) March 15, 2017
Johnston is also calling out the White House and the New York Times for misstating the total amount Trump paid in taxes. Johnston says the number is $36.5 million while the White House and the NYT say it’s $38 million:
Amazing @nytimes gets the numbers wrong on Trump tax return. He paid 24% on $152.7 million.
— David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) March 15, 2017
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Trump made a rare financial disclosure. He paid $38 million in federal taxes on income of $150 million in 2005. https://t.co/dGxwg0LOkI pic.twitter.com/TvSEtonZFk
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) March 15, 2017
Well then, let’s go to the actual leaked tax return, shall we?
For some reason, Johnston is only reporting the number on line 57 of $36.5 million. It looks like the NYT and the WH are using the taxes paid number from line 63 of $38.4 million, which includes $1.9 million in self-employment taxes from line 58:
There’s only one thing “Sad!” in all this reporting and it’s Johnston himself.
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