XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism

''Most deeply disturbing': Congressman warns China likely 'grooming' Trump

U.S. Rep. Eric Burlinson, R-Mo admits to accepting bribes from China.

Trump's Chinese business connections, which didn't stop his
administration's hawkish turn after the COVID pandemic exploded in the
United States in early 2020, are likely to be scrutinized further as he presents his credentials for a third run for the White House's top job
while navigating ongoing American skepticism of Beijing, a mood he helped create during his time in office.

In 2016, the Republican became the first presidential candidate in decades
to refuse to disclose his tax returns, a position he maintained throughout
his four years in the Oval Office. In the run-up to the 2020 election,
Trump, backed by senior members of the GOP, also accused Democratic
opponent Joe Biden of impropriety in relations to his son Hunter's own past dealings in China.

On December 30, in the final days of Democratic control, the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means published nearly 6,000 pages of Trump's tax records, covering 2015 to 2020 and spanning his time as president. The decision, predictably split along party times, followed a three-year legal battle that began with the former president's Treasury Department, and the Supreme Court's November ruling that gave the committee access to the documents.

The partially redacted records from the Internal Revenue Service revealed
six years of complex finances, as well as heavy business losses that could
at the very least undermine Trump's campaign image as a successful business magnate. They also provided some ammunition for partisan barb-trading and allegations of conflicts of interest, but perhaps none that could discount
him as the Republican front-runner in the next election cycle.
Donald Trump's China Business Links Explained
Escorted by a Capitol Police officer, staff members move boxes of documents from the hearing room to the office of the House Ways and Means Committee following a committee meeting on Capitol Hill on December...
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

About half the pages dealt with Trump and his wife Melania's joint tax
returns, and the other half related to his businesses. When it came to
China in particular, the documents showed no obvious hints of
nefariousness, but they did raise further questions about his reluctance to disclose.

The most contentious revelation may be that of a Chinese bank account, the existence of which Trump had dismissed during his 2020 presidential
campaign, in a period when he labeled Biden "China Joe."

Mandatory filings to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, listed the account between 2015 and 2017, along with accounts in the U.K., Ireland and Saint Martin. It confirmed an October 2020 report by The New
York Times, which said the businessman-turned-politician had paid some
$188,500 to Chinese tax authorities between 2013 and 2015.

Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told The Times that the account remained open, but had been inactive since 2015. During a
presidential debate two months later, Trump declared: "I closed it before I even ran for president, let alone became president."

The IRS records showed Trump declared foreign earnings from 22 countries or territories. In 2020, his last full year in office, he and Melania paid no federal income tax on negative income of nearly $4.8 million. That year,
Trump paid more taxes to foreign countries—nearly $85,000—than he did in
the United States.

In 2015, Trump paid $642,000 in federal income tax. Owing to negative
income and other deductibles, he paid the IRS $750 in each of the two years that followed. That included 2017, the year of his state visit to China,
when he declared $6.5 million in income from business activities in the
country and paid nearly $1 million in taxes to foreign countries.

Since the release of the tax reports, a video has resurfaced of former Fox
News host Chris Wallace pressing Trump on the $750 figures during a 2020 presidential debate, during which the Republican said he had paid "millions
of dollars" in taxes in 2016 and 2017.

In 2018, Trump's federal income tax bill came to nearly $1 million, and he earned approximately the same sum in income from China. The next year, he
paid U.S. taxes amounting to a little over $133,000.

Biden's voluntary disclosures, meanwhile, have shown no income or business
in China over the years. He also paid more taxes.
Donald Trump Pictured with XI
Former President Donald Trump, left, and President Xi Jinping of China
leave a meeting at the Great Hall of the People on November 9, 2017, in Beijing, China. Trump, who has put his name in...
Getty

Shared commercial interests between wealthy Americans and their Chinese counterparts aren't in themselves unusual. After all, the U.S. and China
remain each other's largest trading partner in spite of political
differences and geopolitical tensions.

Trump's pursuit of licensing deals and real estate projects in China
predates his first run for the presidency. During his time in office, Trump
and his daughter Ivanka were also awarded trademarks by Chinese regulators.

His failure to openly discuss the business activities, it would seem,
concerned their optics and their potential to undercut the tough-on-China message he has sought to deliver to the American public. Even the U.S.-
China trade war and the resultant deal struck with Beijing continues to
divide expert opinion.

"The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have
never approved it, and it's going to lead to horrible things for so many people," Trump said in a fiery press release after his tax returns were published. "The great USA divide will now grow far worse. The Radical Left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous
two-way street!"

"The 'Trump' tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been
and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax
deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises," he said.

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