Former President Donald Trump used a New York Daily News article about a subway worker stabbed in the neck to bemoan the plight of a tragic victim: himself, a taxpayer made to cough up $300 million.
"But they go after TRUMP, who paid $300,000,000 plus in Taxes," Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. "Businesses are FLEEING New York because of the TRUMP PERSECUTION."
The subway worker is expected to survive his injuries, which might explain why Trump feels he is the New Yorker to be pitied. But his angry social media leaves one outstanding question — what $300 million?
The New York Times famously reported in 2022, after years of Trump refusing to hand over his tax returns, that he had paid $1.1 million during the first three years of his presidency, but just $750 in federal income tax in 2017 and no tax in 2020.
The Times also reported that Trump appeared to have reneged on a promise to donate his $400,000 presidential salary to charity.
"In his first three years in office, Mr. Trump said he donated his salary quarterly," the report notes. "But in 2020, his last full year in office, the documents show that Mr. Trump reported $0 in charitable giving."
The $300 million figure does appear in another New York Times report on Trump's financials, this one from 2020, but in the form of loans with looming due dates.
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"His revenue from 'The Apprentice' and from licensing deals is drying up, and several years ago he sold nearly all the stocks that now might have helped him plug holes in his struggling properties," the 2020 report notes. "And within the next four years, more than $300 million in loans — obligations for which he is personally responsible — will come due."
The figure appears again in a 2022 report from Axios about Trump's losses, as revealed in the released tax returns.
"Over six years, Trump's primary holding company, known as DJT Holdings LLC, accumulated in excess of $313 million in reported losses," Axios reported. "In a statement posted to Truth Social, the ex-president blasted the release of his returns as politically motivated."
Trump might also be referring to the civil fraud case ruling issued last month New York City Judge Arthur Engoron, but that number could end up being much higher than the initial $370 million demanded by Attorney General Letitia James.
Daily interest on the amount has already bumped the number up above $450 million.