Tax Records Reveal How Fame Gave Trump a $427 Million Lifeline (Published 2020)
“The Apprentice” rescued Donald J. Trump, bringing him new sources of cash and a myth that would propel him to the White House.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/28/us/donald-trump-taxes-apprentice.html
This article is based on an examination of data from those returns, which include personal and business tax filings for Mr. Trump and his companies spanning more than two decades. Every dollar is disclosed for the first time: $8,768,330 paid to him by ACN, a multilevel marketing company that was accused of taking advantage of vulnerable investors; $50,000 from the Lifetime channel for a “juicy nighttime soap” that never materialized; $5,026 in net income from a short-lived mortgage business; and $15,286,244 from licensing his name to a line of mattresses.