Daily Trump Tracker: The tax return cometh

The tax return cometh

The White House finally declared how much President Donald Trump paid in taxes—albeit back in 2005. And they only offered up the info because MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow was about to report on two pages of Trump’s 2005 tax return on her evening newscast. For the record, Trump paid about $38 million in income tax on a reported income exceeding $150 million—an effective tax rate of 24 per cent.

Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, "went to his mailbox" and found my tax returns? @NBCNews FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2017

Trump called the report fake news, saying no one has never heard of the reporter who obtained the documents. That reporter, David Cay Johnston, happens to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

About that wire-tapping clam

First, Trump tweeted that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower last year. Then, facing a dearth of evidence, press secretary Sean Spicer said, employing air quotes around “wiretapping,” that the president meant different types of surveillance—but not necessarily wiretapping. Then on Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes—a Republican—said neither he nor his Democratic counterpart have seen any evidence of wiretapping. “I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower,” Nunes told reporters.

Obamacare’s latest 12 million

Since the start of the 2017 enrolment period, 12.2 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare—and nearly one-third were new customers, according to government numbers. However, the Obama administration had initially projected almost 14 million would sign up, and blamed the shortfall on Trump’s team pulling adverts for something Trump constantly promised to repeal once in office.

‘A culture of paranoia’

A report from Politico describes a “culture of paranoia” within the Trump administration, as staffers are using secret apps or leaving their phones at home for fear that their bosses are eavesdropping or might otherwise demand access to their phones to find who’s leaking info to reporters. Some aides are simply assuming that their emails and phones are being monitored, while others have downloaded special encryption software.

Snoop vs. Trump

Trump is weighing in on Snoop Dogg’s latest music video in which the rapper aims a toy gun at a parody of the president dressed like a clown—and pull the trigger.

Can you imagine what the outcry would be if @SnoopDogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2017

Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, was equally upset, telling TMZ: “It’s totally disgraceful. Snoop owes the president an apology.”

For those curious, here’s the music video in question. Don’t watch if you get creeped about by clowns.