He paid less in personal income taxes – just $750 some years, $0 in others – than most working Americans, all while living the lavish lifestyle of a billionaire.
But this story is very important beyond those headline details. Here’s why. 1/
It isn’t just that Trump pays a tiny tax burden and writes off dubious luxury expenses to live like a robber baron. His signature legislation with Republicans in Congress was making the tax code even friendlier to the ultra-rich.
Increasingly financially dependent on his brand, Donald Trump has grossly abused the power of his office to promote his personally-branded businesses and pour taxpayer funds into his own pockets. 5/
In need of money, Trump has rolled back regulations on corporations who bankrolled his campaign.
And he gave unprecedented direct influence over policy to people who paid him, including Mar-A-Lago members who got enormous influence over the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. 6/
As his properties and investments overseas lost money, Trump turned to foreign investors and governments for cash.
These unconstitutional emoluments are a huge problem. The President is supposed to put the country first, but Trump conducts foreign policy to benefit himself. 8/
Many of my constituents have to undergo long, arduous processes to obtain a security clearance for work.
With his debts, his foreign dealings, and the massive leverage others hold over him, Trump could not get a security clearance if he sought it as a private citizen. 9/
Trump responded to this reporting by whining that the IRS treats him badly, an absurd lie.
In fact, the IRS refused to comply with our @WaysMeansCmte subpoena and withheld his tax returns despite the clear language of the law that they “shall be furnished” upon our request. 11/
Earlier this week my constituent, Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown postdoctoral fellow, was detained outside his Rosslyn home. He remains in detention despite not being accused of a crime, a clear violation of his constitutional rights. He must be released. beyer.house.gov/news/documents…
Mr. Suri is here lawfully and is not accused of a crime, yet he was surrounded outside the Northern Virginia home where he lives with his wife – an American citizen – and their children, arrested by masked authorities without explanation, disappeared, imprisoned, denied access to legal counsel, and had his student visa revoked.
The ‘justification’ given for these violations of Mr. Suri’s right to due process is another violation of the Constitution: a blatant attack on the First Amendment.
Mr. Suri and his family are unfortunately the latest victim of President Trump’s assault on the freedom of speech.
Trump has made no effort to disguise the fact that the arrests of academics like Suri and Mahmoud Khalil is intended to have a chilling effect and discourage the free expression of political views which Trump dislikes.
Can we talk about how awful Trump's presidency was? It can be easy to forget. Some might want to forget, but day after day there was a new crisis at the expense of the American people.
We need a reminder, so I’m breaking down some of his worst moments in this thread:
Trump collaborated with Russian efforts to interfere in our elections to help him win, lied about it, refused to endorse American intelligence confirming it, and then fired FBI Director James Comey to kill the investigation.
Just a shameless disregard for American democracy.
As President, he pressured Ukraine to interfere in our elections and then blocked Congress from obtaining key evidence in an attempt to cover it up.
This led to the House’s first impeachment of Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
A few days ago the largest the Republican Study Committee, which counts 4 in 5 House Republicans as members, issued a new budget that seeks a massive transformation of American society. Their proposed changes are a blueprint for a dystopian hellscape. 1/ beyer.house.gov/news/documents…
What's in this Republican budget? It's here if you want to read it for yourself:
We took a closer look at the policy changes they proposed and legislation they endorsed, and documented what it means with citations, which follow below-- 2/hern.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
It would wreck the American health care system for seniors, children, and everyone in between.
They'd turn Medicare into a voucher program, raise Medicare costs and drug costs, gut the ACA and its coverage guarantee for preexisting conditions, and slash Medicaid and CHIP. 3/
2) House Republicans advanced a new tax cut law, aka the "GOP Tax Scam 2.0."
The bill would cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, and increase the deficit -- right after Republicans spent months threatening to wreck the economy to extract cuts.
3) Far right MAGA Republicans took control of the House floor, shutting down votes and refusing to end their blockade unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy broke his debt deal with President Biden: nytimes.com/2023/06/06/us/…
We just passed 100 days since the beginning of the 118th Congress, and things are not going well for the Republican majority in the House.
They've struggled to pass legislation, craft a budget, or agree on priorities. And now their leaders are openly fighting with each other.🧵
You remember how it started: the extreme right of the GOP conference denied Kevin McCarthy support in vote after vote, inflicting brutal humiliation on him and plunging the House into chaos not seen in over 150 years, since before the Civil War
When it finally ended on the 15th ballot, McCarthy was all smiles. But then it emerged that he had made secret deals with far right Republicans that effectively bargained away much of the power of his speakership, leaving him in a precarious position.