“While The Times did not obtain the president’s actual tax returns, it received the information contained in the returns from someone who had legal access to it. The Times was then able to find matching results in the I.R.S. information on top earners — a publicly available database that each year comprises a one-third sampling of those taxpayers, with identifying details removed.”
Fun fact: In 1990 and 1991, based on the people in that public info, Trump had the lowest income of anyone in the United States! He was such a big loser that he lost twice as much money as the second-biggest loser! His losses were so big that in 1991 he alone accounted for fully 1% of all business losses declared that year by all individual American taxpayers. His stats dominated the list of losers like Wayne Gretzky’s stats dominated hockey in his prime, or Babe Ruth’s dominated baseball in his youth. Trump is to losing as Babe Ruth was to winning!
(We’re number one! We’re number one!)
Now, I don’t know the rules of journalism and wouldn’t respect them if I did, but as I see it, the Times went about this all wrong. The way to do it would be to write the story based on the details of the “anonymous taxpayer,” claiming it was Trump, but not demonstrating how you know for sure. In that case, his response would be to deny that the person they called the country’s biggest loser was him. He would probably even use the term “country’s biggest loser”! Only THEN comes the revelation that you know it is him because …
They learned nothing from Omarosa. The way to deal with Trump when you can prove several negatives about him is to make a single claim based on your most solid evidence, without telling him you have the proof. He will then lie, scream “fake news” and deny everything, at which point you produce the irrefutable proof, thereby catching him in both the original negative and the lie. At that point, you introduce another negative point you can prove, but again without the proof, just daring him to do any more denying. At that point he’s trapped, just as he was with Omarosa, and has to keep his mouth shut. Then you keep revealing the negatives one at a time, day after day, to keep the story alive and dominating the news cycle, so he can’t pull off some misdirection and change the narrative.
Omarosa had dealt with him so long, and is so cagey, that she knew exactly how to proceed. Cohen had a pretty good idea, but didn’t fully commit to the recording idea. The rest of the world doesn’t seem to have figured it out yet.
So by becoming president, Trump is actually MAKING MONEY, for one of the few times in his life (per his tax returns, anyway). How nice for him, and for the family members he has put on the public payroll!