Trump's confidential financial documents are exposed

Donald Trump has submitted his personal financial disclosure report to the Federal Election Commission, giving the public a glimpse into his finances since leaving office. The report, however, is limited in its accuracy as candidates are only obligated to report their assets and liabilities within broad ranges. By filing on Friday, Trump avoids a $200 late fee for missing the previous deadline for his 2024 candidacy's first report. The 101-page document reveals some new information about Trump's finances, such as his foray into social media and the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as digital trading cards last year.

The financial disclosure report filed by Donald Trump reveals extensive details about his post-presidential finances, listing hundreds of assets that include properties such as his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, as well as royalties from his books. According to the report, Trump earned over $5 million from speaking engagements.

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The filing also shows that Trump earned between $100,001 to $1 million from non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and that his social media venture, Truth Social, falls under Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which is valued between $5,000,001 and $25 million. Despite owning 90% of the company, Trump reported little to no income from this asset.

As Donald Trump launches another presidential campaign, his financial disclosure filing highlights the extensive global reach of his business interests. For example, he reported royalties of over $5 million from "DT Marks Oman LLC."

In November, The New York Times reported that the Trump Organization had reached an agreement with a Saudi real estate company to construct a Trump hotel, villa, and golf course in Oman as part of a $4 billion project.

Despite the disclosure report's revelations, a Trump campaign spokesman declined to comment on the matter on Friday evening.

Among the 16 books listed by Trump in the report, "The Art of the Deal," his 1987 memoir featuring business advice, generated the most income, earning royalties between $100,000 and $1 million. Most of the other books earned royalties below $201.

The financial disclosure report indicates that Melania Trump's primary source of income is from royalties through MKT World LLC, listed between $1 million to $5 million, along with rental income from a real estate agreement in Slovenia, generating between $1,000 to $15,000 in earnings.

Trump's financial report also shows that he paid off six mortgages and obtained two new ones for his existing properties. Deutsche Bank loaned him two of the paid-off mortgages, one for a Miami property and another for a Washington property. However, following the January 6, 2021 insurrection, the bank stated that it would cease doing business with Trump. The mortgage for Trump's Washington property, the Old Post Office Building, which housed a Trump hotel near the White House, was paid off. Trump's company sold the lease for that property last year.

In a letter sent to the Federal Election Commission last month, Trump's lawyer, Derek Ross, requested an additional 30 days for the former president to finalize and file his report, citing the complexities of his financial holdings.

Trump had previously obtained two 45-day extensions, the maximum allowed, for the filing deadline, which was initially due on March 15. However, Acting General Counsel Lisa Stevenson from the Federal Election Commission responded to Ross' request, stating that Trump had already used up all of his extensions. Stevenson also warned that Trump would be subjected to a $200 penalty if he failed to submit the report within 30 days, in compliance with the federal law that governs such disclosures.

Regarding the delay in filing his financial disclosure report, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung explained in an email to CNN last month that "President Trump has significant financial holdings, and we have advised the Federal Election Commission that additional time is needed to file his financial disclosure report."

In addition to the financial disclosure report, many presidential candidates and White House officials also choose to release their tax returns for a more comprehensive overview of their finances. However, Trump refused to do so throughout his previous presidential campaign and tenure in the White House.

Last year, House Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee finally released six years of Trump's tax returns from 2015 to 2020, following a long legal battle over their disclosure.

After a lengthy legal dispute, the House Ways and Means Committee finally obtained thousands of pages of financial documents that shed light on former President Donald Trump's finances. These documents were released last year, and they represented the most comprehensive insight into Trump's financial status at the time. They revealed that Trump paid little or no income tax for several years, despite having claimed significant business losses prior to and during his presidency. Trump had broken with a long-standing tradition of presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, which led to the committee's lawsuit.

According to a report by the Joint Committee on Taxation on Trump's tax returns, he used huge net operating losses to eliminate most of his tax liabilities. The returns revealed that Trump declared millions of losses and paid $750 in taxes in both 2016 and 2017, and no taxes in 2020. The returns also showed that Trump had business income, taxes, expenses, or other financial items in almost two dozen countries, and multiple foreign bank accounts, including one in China from 2015 to 2017.

In 2020, Trump's financial disclosure form listed at least $446 million in revenue from various sources, such as hotels, resorts, golf courses, and royalties from books and TV programming. However, the form appeared to categorize revenues for the Trump Organization as "income," which usually refers only to personal take-home pay or a share of an asset. This move inflated Trump's wealth on paper.