The New York Times published a piece on Saturday claiming that, by taking advantage of legal provisions within the tax code, Donald Trump has avoided paying federal income tax for nearly 20 years, a topic that took up most of the time during former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Sunday interview on “State of the Union.”
“I think most Americans are probably offended” by Trump’s behavior, posed Tapper. “Most Americans pay their federal income taxes.”
“You don’t know most Americans, and I don’t know most Americans,” hit back Giuliani. “I know most Americans pay their federal income taxes.”
“I know that most Americans pay their federal income taxes, sir,” Tapper reiterated.
Giuliani stated that “most Americans take advantage of every deduction and every legal opportunity there is to save some taxes so that they don’t have to pay as much as they are paying to the government.”
“I know most americans,” he continued. “I know most Americans would rather be paying lower taxes under Donald Trump than 10 percent or 20 percent under Hillary Clinton.”
“Mr. Mayor, in 2012, Donald Trump tweeted ‘half of Americans don’t pay income tax despite crippling government debt.’ He is in that half that does not pay federal income taxes despite crippling government debt,” Tapper noted. “When he rails against the junky infrastructure, when he rails against Laguardia Airport, when he talks about how bridges are collapsing, is he not responsible at least in part for the fact that these things are not being repaired?”
“No,” Giuliani emphatically stated. “Not at all. Absolutely not. The law is responsible for it. If you have a set of laws, you live by those laws. and the reality is you are ignoring completely the fiduciary obligation he has to the people around him to run his business at the lowest possible expense.”
“Every businessman takes advantage of it including Warren Buffett, and Warren Buffett thinks we should be paying 90 percent in taxes. So why doesn’t he voluntarily send in that extra 40 percent? He does the same thing. He takes advantage of the law.”