Death and taxes are supposed to be the twin certainties for American families, but Donald Trump found a way to get around taxes! An in-depth analysis of his finally-obtained tax returns in the New York Times exhaustively confirms the extent of his chicanery, but it’s a single number that stands out: $750. That’s how much Trump paid in federal taxes the year he won the presidency.
To pay $750 in federal taxes in 2017 without Trump’s creative accounting, a married couple with two kids would have had to earn just $53,450 between them, assuming a standard deduction and personal exemption. So Trump’s tax burden was shockingly low not just for a self-described billionaire but for plenty of working people, students with internships, and parents who also have to pay for childcare in America. And they’re not happy about it.
Many took to Twitter to share their own economic circumstances and express anger that the president whose supposed wealth is the hallmark of his personal brand can do what rich people do: work within the rules of a system designed by and for their benefit.
Lots of teenagers who are still new to paying taxes pointed out that they, too, paid more in taxes than Trump.
I am a 16-year-old part-time minimum wage worker and I pay more income taxes than the billionaire President of the United States
— Calla (@CallaWalsh) September 27, 2020
My son has worked in the grocery store since he was 16. He worked during the pandemic once they started following acceptable procedures. As a college student, he works during breaks. He pays more federal income tax than Donald Trump.
— iamdanalena (@iam_danalena) September 28, 2020
A single mom and freelance writer paid more in taxes than Donald Trump and saw it asher civic duty.
In 2016, the year @POTUS was elected, he paid $750 in tax and I paid nearly half my income. I'm a single Mom and a freelance writer, he's a self-confessed billionaire. I believe in civic duty. Doesn't @realDonaldTrump ?
— Janine di Giovanni (@janinedigi) September 28, 2020
And it’s not just their own tax bills that people are mad about. This mom paid more for three weeks of daycare than Trump paid in taxes.
So weird, my baby just looked me in the eye and said clear as day "hey mom, pretty wild that you spend more on 3 weeks of daycare for me than Trump pays in income taxes"
— Elizabeth Schroeder (@schroeder_eliz) September 28, 2020
This one is wild: An undocumented immigrant paid more in taxes from her job at the Trump Organization than Trump himself did.
Here's one of @realdonaldtrump's former employees — an undocumented woman who says Trump Org knew she was undocumented — showing she paid more income tax than Trump did. https://t.co/0GErg8y0nU
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 28, 2020
What’s clear when you read through these messages is that people are mad because Trump has so much and pays so little while they have so little and pay so much. It’s so frustrating that sometimes all you can do is lol.
A few years in my childhood my siblings and I were raised by a single unemployed mother. Being propped up by annuities from my Fathers life insurance policy….. and we paid more taxes than Donald Trump.
I understand legally why, but still…. What the actual fuck? Lol
— Nuggets in 7 (@shmbergerNfries) September 28, 2020
