Donald Trump MELTDOWN: Outrage as POTUS demands Biden takes drug test
DONALD TRUMP has sent shockwaves across the world after demanding Democratic rival Joe Biden takes a drug test "prior to, or after" their upcoming presidential debate following the publication of a report on his tax returns.
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The President of the United States has had his finances laid bare in a lengthy exposé published by the New York Times. Self-proclaimed billionaire Mr Trump only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, according to the report.
In 2017, his first year as President, he paid the same sum as the previous year.
Prior to that, Mr Trump paid “no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made”.
Furious Twitter users expressed their outrage using the hashtag #TrumpMeltdown, which became a trend on the social media platform.
One user wrote: “What a bombshell. @realDonaldTrump misled his own financially-strapped supporters. They struggled while he paid less than almost all of them.
“He is a conman. Look at him walk away. Shameful.
“#TrumpTaxReturns #TrumpTaxes #TrumpKnew #TrumpMeltdown”
Another Twitter user added: “This man is unstable and doesn’t even pay taxes.
“He isn’t competent enough to run a business let alone a whole country.”
In an attempt to defend himself from the claims and in a return to his previously used rhetoric, the President dismissed the report as “totally fake news”.
He did so during Sunday’s White House press briefing, alleging he also paid “a lot” of state income taxes.
He said: “We went through the same stories, you could have asked me the same questions four years ago, I had to litigate this and talk about it.
“Totally fake news, no. Actually, I paid tax. And you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns – it’s under audit, they’ve been under audit for a long time.
“The Internal Revenue Service does not treat me well … they treat me very badly.
“You have people in the IRS – they treat me very badly.”
He added: “The New York Times tried it, the same thing, they want to create a little bit of a story.
“They’re doing anything they can. That’s the least of it. The stories that I read are so fake, they’re so phony.”
Addressing the accusation that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes in the year he was elected despite being a billionaire, Mr Trump said: “First of all I paid a lot, and I paid a lot of state income taxes too.
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“The New York state charges a lot and I paid a lot of money in state. It’ll all be revealed. It’s going to come out but after the audit.”
The news comes ahead of Mr Trump and Mr Biden’s first presidential debate, set to take place on Tuesday.
In a tweet posted on Sunday, Mr Trump, referring to the Democratic presidential candidate as “Sleepy Joe Biden”, demanded Mr Biden takes a drug test before or after the event.
He wrote: “I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also.
“His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???”