NYT uncovers Trump family tax schemes
Listen 48:55
A photograph of Fred Trump on display in the Oval Office.
Guests: Russell Buetner, Jennifer Bird-Pollan
Donald Trump has long-bragged about being a self-made billionaire but a recent New York Times investigation into the Trump’s and his father’s business empire dispute that claim. According to the reporting, Trump received today’s equivalent of $400 million from his father, Fred Trump, over his lifetime. The Trump family business also employed dodgy tax practices over the years, avoiding some $550 million in taxes. New York Times investigative reporter RUSS BUETTNER fills us in on the questionable ways that Fred Trump, and then Donald, grew their wealth. And JENNIFER BIRD-POLLAN, an expert on wealth transfer taxation and professor of law at the University of Kentucky, explains which Trump family schemes are legal, which are suspect, and which look like tax evasion.