Trump's Tax Returns Raise Questions About Campaign Promise

Donald Trump made a lot of claims about his taxes on the campaign trail.

On a debate stage with Joe Biden, he claimed to have paid millions of dollars in taxes in recent years, and that a reported $750 tax bill he'd reported against millions of dollars in income that was subsequently scrutinized by the media was merely a "filing fee."

He also claimed that a Chinese bank account he'd maintained for business purposes had been closed before his run for the presidency, and that, as he and his press secretary, Sean Spicer, said in 2017, he would donate every cent of what was left of his taxpayer-funded $400,000 per year salary to charity.

The release of the former president's tax returns Friday show that Trump kept open his foreign bank accounts—including in China—throughout his presidency.

And he reported $0 in charitable giving on his 2020 tax return, according to various analysts, even after tweeting a photo of a check showing his payout of $100,000 to the National Park Service in August, about one month after a Washington Post story confirmed that he failed to donate a portion of his salary like he promised.

Though his 2018 and 2019 returns showed charitable contributions of more than $500,000, and an additional $1.9 million to charity in 2017, a report on Trump's taxes noted that he provided little documentation to support his claims.

There were other issues.

On a debate stage before Fox News' Chris Wallace, Trump said he paid "millions of dollars" in taxes for 2016 and 2017, when he actually paid far less, reviving highly scrutinized claims that he prepaid those millions of dollars in taxes.

Tax returns throughout his presidency show that Trump reported large losses he carried forward to all but eliminate his tax burden, including a $105 million loss in 2015 and a $73 million loss in 2016. Four years later, Trump claimed a refund of roughly $5.5 million.

Meanwhile, Trump earned his income other ways.

Beyond the millions of dollars in unpaid bills to municipalities that provided police and security for his rallies—plus more than $1.6 million in unpaid server hosting fees for his Truth Social revealed by Fox News over the summer—Trump regularly directed taxpayer dollars toward his various properties, including his home at Mar-a-Lago, and was long scrutinized for potential conflicts of interest over foreign dignitaries' use of his Washington, D.C. hotel.

Reports that he had potentially been double-dipping from his salary, government watchdogs claimed, fueled speculation he used the presidency to enrich himself as much as possible.

"For years, when we'd point out Trump's business conflicts, his supporters would brush them off because he was donating his salary to charity," Citizens for a Responsible and Ethical Washington, a D.C. watchdog organization, tweeted Friday. "Turns out he wasn't."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.