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President Donald Trump lashed out at The New York Times on Wednesday over a comprehensive investigation alleging decades of fraudulent tax practices that increased the money the president received from his parents.
In a tweet, Trump did not specifically deny the conduct the Times described as “dubious tax schemes,” including “instances of outright fraud.” It said he and his siblings used these practices to boost the value of the money they got from their parents.
“The Failing New York Times did something I have never seen done before. They used the concept of ‘time value of money’ in doing a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me. Added up, this means that 97% of their stories on me are bad. Never recovered from bad election call!” Trump wrote.
The Times, in turn, defended the article after Trump’s tweet. “This is a powerful piece of investigative journalism, the result of 18 months of inquiry and a review of over 100,000 pages of records. It is accurate and fair and we stand behind it,” a spokeswoman for the paper said.
Trump appeared to target the newspaper’s reporting that the president actually received today’s equivalent of $413 million from his father’s real estate holdings. His father, Fred, loaned him at least $60.7 million, or $140 million in today’s dollars, rather than the $1 million loan Trump previously described on the campaign trail as “small,” according to the Times.
While Trump called the story “boring and often told,” it went deeper into his family’s tax practices and his claims about his wealth than any report previously has. It is unclear where he got his accusation that 97 percent of the Times’ stories about him are “bad.”
After the newspaper published its report Tuesday, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance said it “is reviewing the allegations” and “vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation.” Trump lawyer Charles Harder denied any accusations of fraud and tax evasion to the Times, saying “the facts upon which The Times bases its allegations are extremely inaccurate.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests to comment on the president’s tweet.