Q: Who are the financial interests that are backing Trump?
A: I am not prepared to go on the record now with a definitive statement on an issue that I do not have personal knowledge. I am not Trump’s advisor. I do not possess secret knowledge. There are however, some uncontested facts that indicate some obvious conclusions.
Q: And what are some of those facts?
A: His recent appointment of an x CIA director to be his security advisor. His early support for more military spending. It is apparent that he has made his deal with the military industrial complex.
Q: How does that differ from Hillary’s financing from the Wall Street financial interests? Are not they also part of the military industrial complex? What is the difference?
A: It is the difference between the financial, industrial, military complex and the military, industrial, financial complex. Hillary is backed by the former and Trump is backed by the latter. With Trump there will be more funding for the military and better rules for businessman. With Hillary there would be more power to the Wall Street bankers and less funding for the military. Trump also means less influence for the Bank of England group and more influence for the Bank for International Settlement, BIS.
Q: I am not sure what that means. Please clarify.
A: Brexit is part of the puzzle. The London bankers did not want to be under EU bureaucrat’s regulatory control. The EU regulations on short selling and other free market approaches to financial services would have reduced London from a world to a regional financial center. In order to appreciate what is happening fully, I will need to go into some history. Stay tuned and remember: Carthage must be destroyed.
Trump – Taxes and income
Trump has released financial information, but has declined to publicly release any of his full tax returns, saying that he will do so before the 2016 election if an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is completed covering tax returns for the years 2009 through 2016. According to a July 2015 press release from his campaign manager, Trump’s “income” for the year 2014 was $362 million (“which does not include dividends, interest, capital gains, rents and royalties”). His disclosure filings for the year 2015 revealed that his total gross revenue was in excess of $611 million.
Fortune magazine has reported that the $362 million figure as stated on his FEC filings is not “income” but gross revenue before salaries, interest payments on outstanding debt, and other business-related expenses; Trump’s net income was “most likely” about one-third of that. According to public records, Trump received a $302 New York tax rebate in 2013 (and in two other recent years) given to couples earning less than $500,000 per year, who submit as proof their federal tax returns. Trump’s campaign manager has suggested that Trump’s tax rebate was an error.
Donald Trump Net worth and financial interests
Trump has claimed his net worth is over $10 billion, whereas in 2015 Forbes estimated his net worth at $4.5 billion, and Bloomberg $3 billion, with the discrepancy due in part to the uncertainty of appraised property values. These estimates would make Trump one of the richest politicians in American history. As of March 2016, Forbes had him listed at #336 on its list of the world’s wealthiest people.
On June 16, 2015, just prior to announcing his candidacy for president of the United States, Trump released a one-page financial statement “from a big accounting firm—one of the most respected” stating a net worth of $8,737,540,000. “I’m really rich”, Trump said. Forbes believed his claim of $9 billion was “a whopper,” figuring it was actually $4.1 billion. In June 2015, Business Insider published Trump’s June 2014 financial statement, noting that $3.3 billion of that total is represented by “Real Estate Licensing Deals, Brand and Branded Developments”, described by Business Insider as “basically that Trump values his character at $3.3 billion.” In July 2015, federal election regulators released new details of Trump’s self-reported wealth and financial holdings when he became a Republican presidential candidate, reporting that his assets are worth above $1.4 billion, which includes at least $70 million in stocks, and a debt of at least $265 million. According to Bloomberg, for the purposes of Trump’s FEC filings Trump “only reported revenue for [his] golf properties in his campaign filings even though the disclosure form asks for income”, noting independent filings showing all three of his major European golf properties were unprofitable.
A July 2015 campaign press release, issued one month after Trump announced his presidential run, said that the FEC filing “was not designed for a man of Mr. Trump’s massive wealth” and that his “net worth is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS”. However, Trump has testified that “my net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings—even my own feelings.” On the same day, Trump’s own stated estimates of his net worth have varied by as much as $3.3 billion. Trump has also acknowledged that past exaggerated estimates of his wealth have been “good for financing”. Forbes has said that although Trump “shares a lot of information with us that helps us get to the figures we publish,” he “consistently pushes for a higher net worth—especially when it comes to the value of his personal brand.” Forbes reduced its estimate of Trump’s net worth by $125 million following Trump’s controversial 2015 remarks about Mexican illegal immigrants, which ended Trump’s business contracts with NBCUniversal, Univision, Macy’s, Serta, PVH Corporation, and Perfumania. An internal Young & Rubicam study of Trump’s brand among high-income consumers showed “plummeting” ratings for traits such as “prestigious”, “upper class”, and “glamorous” at the end of 2015, suggesting that Trump’s various businesses could face market difficulties and financing challenges in the future.
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