Watch: Fox News Attempts Rapid Spin Job on Trump Tax Story On Tuesday night, the New York Times published a bombshell story concerning Donald Trump’s tax returns. From 1985-1994, the president reportedly lost $1.2 billion and avoided paying any kind of income tax. Fox News hosts, Martha MacCallum, and Ed Henry were caught flatfooted as the news arrived mid-segment. Fox guest, Marc Thiessen, from the Washington Post, quickly tried to spin the news story as being favorable to the president. Thiessen claimed, “I always thought that the reason why Donald Trump doesn’t want his taxes released is nothing to do with any corruption or illegality. It’s because they are going to show he is not as rich as he says he is. Because when you do your taxes, your incentive is to minimize your income as much as possible to pay the least amount of taxes.” The Washington Post writer continued, “So Donald Trump has the best accountants in the world they are going to minimize his income. He’s trying to organize his finances in a way that lowers his taxes.” Host Ed Henry insinuated that while it’s now Trump’s time in the wringer, Democrats will also face inspection. “Now Joe Biden and the Democrats, maybe they’re going to be under scrutiny as well,” the host said. The White House has denied the paper’s claims. Trump’s lawyer, Charles J. Harder called the claims, “demonstrably false.” He continued, “I.R.S. transcripts, particularly before the days of electronic filing, are notoriously inaccurate. They would not be able to provide a reasonable picture of any taxpayer’s return.”<doc-sep>The Fox & Friends co-hosts were appalled by the "disturbing" leaks of President Donald Trump's tax documents to The New York Times, but hailed him as a "bold businessman" for reportedly losing more than $1 billion between 1985 and 1994. Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade along with guest and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich lavished praise on Trump's business record despite the Monday report in The New York Times showing the real estate businessman was in "deep financial distress" for much of his career. But instead of discussing how the self-proclaimed "Art of the Deal" master lost more than $1 billion, co-host Ainsley Earhardt called the leaking of the tax documents "disturbing." And Gingrich, who appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, labeled The New York Times and its owners the "mortal enemy of President Trump." "These tax records, according to The New York Times, were given to them by somebody who had legal access to them," Steve Doocy said, prompting Earhardt to chime in, "that's disturbing." Doocy then continued, "Well, we don't know if that's one of his attorneys or one of his tax guys or if it's somebody in the federal government." "Michael Cohen, maybe?" Kilmeade interjected, floating the name of Trump's former personal attorney who is set to spend three years in federal prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations. Earhardt wrote off the entire report, saying it won't change how people vote in 2020 because "he's already our president," before adding, "I am disturbed by the fact that this was leaked. Who leaked this?" But she gushed over Trump owning a plane "as big as a Delta jet -- we can't even fathom that kind of money." Kilmeade called the report just another stop "in the endless quest for The New York Times and The Washington Post to get the president's tax returns. Along with every Democrat on the planet." The Fox News Channel morning crew then praised Trump for explaining how the real estate business works on Twitter Wednesday morning: "Real estate developers in the 1980's & 1990's, more than 30 years ago, were entitled to massive write offs and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show losses and tax losses in almost all cases. Much was non monetary. Sometimes considered "tax shelter," Trump tweeted Wednesday morning in response to the Times report. "[Y]ou would get it by building, or even buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes....almost all real estate developers did - and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport. Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!" he added. An annoyed Earhardt exclaimed, "He knows how to do this, he knows the laws!" Doocy added, "There's nothing in the story to suggest that Donald Trump did anything wrong." In perhaps the most vehement defense of Trump, Gingrich attacked The New York Times directly, labeling the newspaper the "mortal enemy" of Donald Trump. He even attacked the Sulzberger family owners as "really rich" and called for an investigation into the family's finances and for the release of their own tax returns. Kilmeade called on Trump to investigate Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings' and Maxine Waters' financial information. "He didn't lose a billion dollars," Gingrich said, rejecting the Times story altogether. "He had a billion dollars of losses inside a bunch of companies that were making a heck of a lot more than a billion dollars....Every American should ask themselves, how sick do you get when The New York Times and The Washington Post go out of their way day after day after day to find an excuse to attack the president of the United States." Kilmeade ultimately cornered himself into a sprawling defense of Trump, even dismissing the tax findings saying, Trump only "lost a lot of money over the course of 10 years, if you consider a billion dollars a lot of money...it's called empire building and some didn't go well like the Taj Mahal and [Eastern] airlines." "For me, I can't imagine having that much money, spending that much money, and being in debt. But for him, it makes sense," Kilmeade said, gushing over the president's bloated personal finances.<doc-sep>“He was campaigning on the trail with his plane behind him that’s as big as a Delta jet, with his name on it. We can’t even fathom that kind of money,” Earhardt said. “So I’m sure that if you have that kind of money, you look at tax laws, you buy things to take a loss so that you make more the next year.”<doc-sep>Fox News wants you to believe that a bombshell New York Times report about Trump losing more than $1 billion in the decade between 1985 and 1994 is actually no big deal. In fact, it actually reflects how impressive Trump is. “If anything, you read this and you’re like ‘wow, it’s pretty impressive, all the things that he’s done in his life,’” said Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt during Wednesday’s show. “It’s beyond what most of us could ever achieve.” Host Brian Kilmeade chimed in to say he thinks the Times’s reporting shows how “bold” Trump’s business skills are. “I can’t imagine having that much money, spending that much money, and being in debt. For him, it makes sense.” he said during the course of a discussion that would likely make Kim Jong Un blush if it appeared on North Korean state TV. Watch: Ainsley Earhardt on the NY Times story about Trump's $1 billion+ in business losses: "If anything, you read this and you're like 'wow, it's pretty impressive, all the things that he's done in his life.' It's beyond what most of us could ever achieve." pic.twitter.com/H4QQOWJewm — Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) May 8, 2019 In a sense, Earhardt’s not wrong. The fact that Trump “appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer” between 1985 and 1994, as the Times puts it, is an impressive accomplishment. But it’s worth remembering previous New York Times reporting from last October about how Trump received nearly half a billion dollars from his dad, then maintained his fortune with the help of “dubious tax schemes,” including “instances of outright fraud.” Viewed in that light, losing so much money is nothing to be proud of, and in combination, the stories cut against the image Trump has cultivated as a successful self-made businessman. It’s also worth remembering that Fox News spun the Times report from last October in the most pro-Trump manner possible. Host Neil Cavuto dismissed tax fraud as “creative accounting,” saying, “I don’t know if there’s a there there outside of the fact the president benefited from having a rich father and a good marketing skill,” while Earhardt said the revelations amounted to “bashing his dad who has been dead for a very long time” — despite the fact that the New York Times story did not “bash” Trump’s father Fred, who died in 1999. Fox & Friends' takeaway from to bombshell NYT story about Trump benefiting from fraudulent tax schemes is that it proves there was "no financial benefit for Donald Trump running for president." #StateMediaWatch pic.twitter.com/IsEnTT0kcD — Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) October 3, 2018 On Wednesday afternoon, Trump tweeted out an entire Fox & Friends segment from Wednesday in which the hosts and staunch Trump ally Newt Gingrich team up to downplay the Times’s reporting about Trump’s financial losses. He even went as far as to directly thank the show for its coverage. Trump’s tweet marked the fifth one he posted on Wednesday alone in which he quoted Fox News’ coverage while tagging network personalities. The news moves fast. To stay updated, follow Aaron Rupar on Twitter, and read more of Vox’s policy and politics coverage.<doc-sep>
Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said Wednesday that a report chronicling President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE's massive business losses over a 10-year period was an "impressive" look at everything the real estate mogul accomplished. "If anything, you read this and you're like 'wow, it's pretty impressive, all the things that he's done in his life,'" Earhardt said on "Fox & Friends" after The New York Times, citing IRS transcripts, reported that Trump's businesses accumulated $1.2 billion in losses between 1985 and 1994. "It's beyond what most of us could ever achieve," she added. ADVERTISEMENT The Times report revealed that Trump's business losses continued to grow in the late '80s and early '90s. In 1990 and 1991, Trump's business losses were more than $250 million. The documents the newspaper received also indicated that the president avoided paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years because of his massive losses. It remains unclear if the IRS asked him to make changes after audits. The Times did not receive copies of Trump's actual tax returns from 1985 to 1994. But the newspaper obtained copies of Trump's tax transcripts that included figures from his federal tax forms. Earhardt and her fellow "Fox & Friends" hosts dismissed the idea that the report painted a damaging picture of Trump. Brian Kilmeade, for example, said that the story actually displayed that the president was a "bold businessman" because he was willing to take risks. "There’s nothing about this article that should surprise anybody that got the [New York] Daily News and New York Post throughout the last 10 years," Kilmeade said. "I can’t imagine having that much money, spending that much money and being in debt. For him, it makes sense; he’s buying now, building it up because he had confidence, he knows that the properties will be worth more." “For Donald Trump, he says, ‘I got some money but I want to really expand my empire, I want to take chances,' " Kilmeade said later. "That’s what he's done through his entire life.” "Fox & Friends" co-host Steve Doocy also noted that there's no suggestion of Trump breaking the law. "I think the suggestion is simply that he used the tax laws to his benefit," he said. Trump called The Times's report a “highly inaccurate Fake News hit job" in Wednesday morning tweets. He defended his losses, saying that real estate developers in the 1980s and 1990s were entitled to “massive write offs and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show losses and tax losses in almost all cases." The report from the Times came amid a contentious standoff between the White House and congressional Democrats over the president's tax returns. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday rejected a request from House Democrats for copies of Trump's federal tax returns.