Among other fraudulent methods, the Trump family seemingly undervalued their assets in order to avoid taxes and to pay little in taxes. For example, the Trump family created the company All County Building Supply & Maintenance, which was used to mark up purchases already made by employees and increased rent prices despite the stated purpose for providing Trump’s building with supplies.
However, Donald Trump may be mostly guilty of deceiving the public and selling his family name as a brand through corporations, hotels, and buildings. Despite claiming that he only borrowed $1 million from his father and repaying him with interest, Trump actually borrowed around $60.7 million, where not much was repaid. In reality, Trump relied on his father much more than he says; when Trump was experiencing financial distress in 1990, his father extracted around $50 million from his own empire to help his son and also purchased $3.5 million in casino chips without bet at the Castle Casino where Trump owed a $18.4 million bond payment, helping Donald Trump pay off his loans and expenses. His “self-made billionaire status,” proclaimed by him and recognized by Forbes magazine, appears to be a myth due to the support and connections he received from his father. By building the brand name of “Trump,” Donald Trump climbed the social ladder more and expanded his reaches and influence for other places.
Due to Trump’s public campaign as a “self-made billionaire,” the Washington Post conducted a survey in June 2018 by Nielsen Scarborough, which included 394 Democrats and 311 Republicans, in order to see people’s reactions to Trump’s claims and his possible lies. Based on the data, less people support Trump after hearing about his family’s path to wealth. The data represents an example of selective exposure and confirmation bias. Republicans and Democrats voted in similar manners with some difference before and after learning the news. Therefore, selective exposure can be seen as the Republicans still favored Trump (although to a lesser degree), believing he cared about his people, and thus, ignored his background. For the Democrats and Republicans, confirmation bias is illustrated because Democrats listened to the news and favored Trump even less, while Republicans seemed to ignore the news more and still favored Trump to a high, majority percentage. Although both parties favored Trump to a lesser extent, each side mostly held their opinions on Trump, demonstrating confirmation bias and selective exposure (by listening to information that reaffirms for the beliefs for Democrats and by ignoring information for Republicans) through the slight differences in beliefs before and after the information was presented.
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| Washington Post survey by Nielsen Scarborough of June 2018 |
In response to the allegations, Trump and Trump’s lawyer, Charles J. Harder, released a written statement that refused the investigation’s claims, calling them “inaccurate” and stating that the Trump family “ensure[d] full compliance with the law.” Other media outlets, such as the Real Clear Markets, supported Trump in his self-made billionaire status, claiming that wealthy people have reaped riches through similar manners without any criticism.
In my opinion, Trump is notorious for spreading false claims about himself and the news. If these allegations are true, then his background becomes no exception to his repeated behavior of (ironically) spreading “fake news.” Admittedly, I am not a Trump supporter and this information makes me dislike him more. I find it hard to believe that he is for the people and that he is an honest and credible person if he has lied about his past (a lie that might have supported him in his campaign through the underdog idea) and has refused to release his tax returns, an action that makes him question his credibility. I, along with other Democrats, do not believe Trump supports the people based on his prestige, his policies (especially his immigration stance), and his character. The fact that other prominent people have incorporated similar methods does not surprise me, especially in the past, but that idea does not excuse our president from the dishonest behavior he allegedly committed in the past. This new information supports the idea that Trump sometimes lies in order to appear better and more appealing to his people, claiming his wealth is from his hard work when it might not truly be. Therefore, this news further weakens my trust in Trump. For a more professional insight, read this GQ’s analysis into the relationship between the upper class in America and Trump.
Sources:
https://www.gq.com/story/eat-the-rich-part-the-infinity
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