Fred Trump's $413M Boy

Donald & Fred Trump

The "failing" New York Times today again proved why it's a national treasure, running more than 14,000 words that jump from the lede of today's paper to eight inside pages (with photos), to destroy once-and-for-all Donald Trump's lie that he built a real estate empire with $1M in seed money from dad, Fred.

The tweeter-in-chief actually received $413M (in today's money) from dear old dad, largely though tax dodges and shady business transactions. Hey, but who's counting?

The Times' expose brought to mind Texas populist Jim Hightower's famous take-down of George Bush, Sr, who, he said "was born on third base and thought he had hit a triple."

Trump didn't even bother to suit up and take the field. Daddy put Junior on the payroll when he was three years old, paying him a cool $200K per-year.

And the gravy train may make a stop at the White House. Fred invested in Brooklyn's Starrett City, a middle-class housing complex that is hard by the Belt Parkway, during the 1970s.

Starrett City was sold for $905M this year. Trump's cut of the proceeds is expected to top $16M.

The good news for the president is that he's off the hook for helping Fred evade taxes because the tax dodges are past the statute of limitations.

The president could be hit with civil fines for tax fraud, according to the paper.

Following publication of the Times' blockbuster, New York State's Dept. of Taxation and Finance promised to pursue all appropriate areas of investigation.

The Times' editorial board believes that the paper's debunking of Trump's Horatio Alger myth is "an excellent time for Mr. Trump to hand over those tax returns on which he has thus far kept a death grip."

Kudos to the NYT and its investigative team of David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner for outing the Trump charade and demonstrating the power of journalism.