Trump: American Con Man Ranking #1 in Top Ten Hands Down for Sure

Who you gonna trust or believe about this

(Pretty simple really)

Al Capone “Mob-like” tax crimes by Donald J. Trump this extensive and detailed truly astonishing ProPublica in depth analysis shows.

First this short reminder of the biggest liar ever in American political history – hands down:

I highlight this part which is my summary that is near the end of the full story that pretty much tells us who Trump is and how he has operated and continues to operate even today:

Trump for years has continued to offer selective financial statements.

If anything, the list of recipients seemed to grow, to include banks and insurance companies, according to congressional testimony last year by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, shortly before he went to prison. 

Cohen released copies of Trump’s financial statements for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and testified: “It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.”

Mazars had become Trump's accountants of record (after a merger with Weiser occurred in 2010) and the disclaimers in the financial statements had grown to exclude anything involving the finances of Trump’s large hotels in Las Vegas and Chicago. 

The 2011 and 2012 statements placed Trump’s net worth at $4,261,590,000 and $4,558,680,000, respectively. They included multiple false claims as The Washington Post reported last year (that in his 2011 tax statement for example):

Trump claimed “Trump Tower” was 68 stories tall (it’s really only 58).

Trump exaggerated the size of Trump’s Virginia vineyard (it’s 1,200 acres, not 2,000)Trump inflated the number of lots approved for sale at his golf course in southern California (it was 31, not 55).

Trump claimed a 212-acre Westchester County estate he’d bought in 1996 for $7.5 million was already “zoned for 9 luxurious homes” and thus worth $291 million. Local officials said the property was worth $20 million. It faced years of local opposition, was never built; tax write-off. 

These false statements alone appear to have inflated Trump’s claimed wealth by hundreds of millions. 

Trump announced his 2016 campaign for the presidency in gala fashion in 2015 and he waved a financial statement that he said his accountants had prepared. This time the tally was $8,737,540,000.

Kyle Welch, George Washington University assistant accountancy professor said: “To pay an auditor to say ‘we have not checked the numbers, and the numbers don’t follow any rules’ — you just don’t see that. This is not a real financial statement. This is a promotional document.” (Meaning the sweeping disclaimer protects the accountants from legal liability or industry sanctions). 

Welch said he doubts a larger firm would have been willing to affix its name to such statements, concluding: “I don’t think any of the Big Four would put their name on those financial statements. I don’t think they could have been paid enough to get it done.”

This excellent story from ProPublica's historical record proves all that and more as fully published here.

My 2 cents: We all have known for some time (except for Trump loyalist sycophants) how much he lies, brags, boasts, and exaggerates on himself, his accomplishments in life, and now as president for over three years. 

He can’t change, won’t change, and in fact, he is incapable of change in that regard. It’s in his DNA and it’s his M.O. as a very skilled con man – that I give him credit for, but not much else. 

Now we’ll have to see how the Supreme Court hears Trump financial woes on May 12 regarding his tax returns, etc., which he again is asking them to block. 

All this is great research and a must-read source, and for sure: A keeper. 

Thanks for stopping by.