Boom, collapses the biggest lie from the world's most accomplished liar, exploded by financial reports of funds funneled from his father that brought Donald Trump to wealth and fame and power.
The New York Times decoded the truth from 100,000 documents: All told, Donald amassed $413 million in today's dollars by the feat of conception by Fred Trump, a genuinely successful developer who built vast stretches of Brooklyn and Queens.
Not a "small loan of a million dollars," paid back with interest _ the story Donald Trump told voters, selling himself as an accomplished businessman meriting the presidency. That was pure scammery, a skyline of cards, never before so definitively shown.
And that's not half the scandal. Accounting acrobatics surrounding Fred's 1999 death suggest stratagems to evade gift and estate taxes by perhaps half a billion dollars.
A key scheme ran payments for apartment supplies and improvements through a shell company at inflated prices, funneling funds to bank accounts for Donald and his siblings without crossing paths with the taxman. Under New York's rent regulations, the arrangement also enabled them to fatten rents for littler guys.
Yet when it came time to value thousands of apartments to transfer them to Donald and other heirs as Fred grew frail, the appraiser selected by Donald slashed their value to nearly nothing, minimizing what otherwise could have been hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.
Where was the IRS, and New York State tax department? Where was the state housing agency? Paddling in the pond, sitting ducks for tax lawyers armed with razor-tipped pens.
What a disgrace. The state Department of Taxation and Finance says it's investigating the years-old Trump transactions, still subject to civil penalties. Will Trump's own IRS take a close look and likewise recoup any sums due? Not bloody likely.
But aggressive audits are a must. The chances the Trump family inheritance schemes were unique in their details are about the same that Donald was a self-made billionaire.
Donald Trump was right: The economy is rigged.
What he didn't say: For guys like him.
