Donald Trump’s big grift in Westchester County exposed
Donald Trump keeps concocting new ways of reminding us how much he loves screwing the American taxpayer. While the mere thought of knowing that others are suffering because of him is enough to spark joy, Trump’s preference is to harm others while reaping a financial benefit. Through his latest depraved stunt, Trump has accomplished exactly that, in a tale of greed, hypocrisy, and golf.
Since 2015, Trump has been grieving the property tax value of Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, New York. After a judge issued a surprise ruling last April heavily in favor of a nearby golf club’s grievance, Trump pounced. Using the ruling as leverage, Trump pressured the local school districts into cutting a deal that slashed his golf club’s assessed value from roughly $15 million to $9.5 million. In August, the same judge approved the settlement, according to reporting from The Daily Beast.
Trump’s successful and substantial tax grievance is particularly offensive because he has taken pains to inflate the value of the very same property in other contexts. Even as Trump has been fighting since 2015 to lower the town’s valuation of his golf club below $15 million, he has also declared that property to be worth over $50 million on White House financial disclosures.
As soulless, narcissistic Trump tries to have it both ways, innocent American taxpayers are paying the price. In one of the affected school districts, for example, households will now need to fork over, on average, an additional $245 in taxes to fund Trump’s massive settlement and avoid even costlier litigation. The Westchester County District Attorney has been investigating Trump’s valuation shenanigans, even as New York State continues probing Trump’s shady tax and banking schemes. In the meantime, the gluttonous beast plunders as he lumbers.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month