Tax Day

Trump Your Refund, Cartoon for CNN

CNN04142019

Here’s your weekly cartoon for CNN’s weekly newsletter, Provoke/Persuade. Please sign up to get these in your inbox every Sunday for the rest of your life.

Don’t think there’s not a connection between Trump being the first president in forty years not to release his taxes and his corporation doing business with foreign governments. You would have to be blind, dense, obtuse, and an all-around friggin idiot not to connect these dots. In other words, you would have to be a Trump supporter.

So I don’t get in actual legal trouble, I should say it’s my opinion that Donald Trump is corrupt…except it’s a fact. Donald Trump is corrupt. He is corrupt financially, business-wise, and as a human being. Richard Nixon said, “people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook.” Donald Trump doesn’t care if people know he’s corrupt. What’s worse, his supporters don’t care if he’s corrupt.

This is where you see Republicans kicking and screaming defending him from showing anyone his tax returns. Why would you not want to see these? Donald Trump is a man who stiffed contractors, driving many out of business, operated a fake university, stole from charity, and even bankrupted a casino. He’s told nearly 10,000 lies since walking into the Oval Office. So yeah, let’s trust this guy when he says he’s not making money off the presidency or there isn’t a financial conflict of interest between him doing his job and making money off Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, etc.

Trump donates his presidential salary of $400,000 back to the government and his supporters make a lot of noise about this. What they overlook is how much the government pays for his golf trips which have so far totaled around $96 million in the span of two years. Some of that golf trip money is going back into his pocket. When he visits his resorts, he charges the government for staying there. He charges the Secret Service rent at Trump Tower and at his resorts. He even charges them for golf cart rentals as they follow him around while he cheats on the course.

Trump doesn’t just make money off the U.S. government. Why do you think he takes the premier of China and the Prime Minister of Japan to Mar-a-Lago? Those governments have to pay to rent rooms there. His hotels, which were in deep financial trouble before he came into office, are doing brisk business now with foreign governments. They know the quickest route to get preferential treatment from Trump is through his ego and his wallet. Saudi Arabia has rented rooms from Trump that they didn’t even use. Every right-wing convention that comes to Washington now has to rent the ballroom at Trump’s new Washington Hotel. Trump even nixed the plans for the FBI to move from downtown Washington out of fear that a competing hotel would move into their location. Donald Trump is corrupt.

Now, his Chief-of-Staff Mick Mulvaney vows that Congress will never see Trump’s tax returns. Whey they say “Congress,” they mean you. They vow you will never see his tax returns.

Trump claims he can’t release his taxes because they are under audit. A president’s tax returns are automatically audited, but we don’t know if they were under audit when he first made that claim. Even if they were under audit, it doesn’t matter. There is nothing that prohibits a politician from releasing his taxes while they’re under audit. In fact, many people have released their taxes while they were under audit.

So, if you haven’t filed your taxes yet (tomorrow is the deadline), keep in mind that Trump does not want you to see his taxes. Also, keep in mind the huge tax break Trump and Republicans gave to America’s richest assholes, including Trump. Trump’s biggest priority, other than pushing a racist agenda on America, was to give himself a huge tax cut. He gave you a tiny temporary cut while he gave a huge permanent one to corporations. Guess who’s a corporation. Donald Trump.

In 2019, people have to realize that their president is a crook.

On a personal note, I completed my taxes around 8:00 am today and I don’t see how the Trump and Republican changes helped me at all.

Be Complicit

What kind of person would want to be part of something that disparages, slanders, and disrespects Dear Leader and his sycophantic followers? Hopefully, you. 
Making a contribution supports my work and keeps the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. My income is from newspapers that subscribe to my work and small contributors. George Soros hasn’t sent me a million dollar check in weeks. Making a contribution of any amount, or buying a print for $40.00, makes you part of this specific resistance, and a member of Team Claytoonz (we’re still working on the name). You are complicit, an accomplice, and in cahoots (and whatever gangster terms we can think of) with this political satire pointing out that the stupid emperor has no clothes. Contributions can be made through PayPal, checks, and wads of cash exchanged in back alleys.
Whether you can help support, can’t, or just choose not to, please continue to enjoy and keep reading my work. Thank you!!! 

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch the video.

Advertisement

Taxpayer-Financed Slush Fund

cjones04192018

The tax filing deadline has been extended to April 17, this Tuesday. If you’re a rational and sensible person, this means nothing to you as you have already filed. If you’re like me, you’ll be doing your taxes on Tuesday.

Patriots pay their taxes. A Republican’s idea of a patriot is a billionaire who finds ways around the system to pay as little as possible. Other Republican patriots are those who use taxpayer money as their own personal slush fund. Not only is the Trump cabinet full of these people, but Trump himself doesn’t mind spending our money on his personal frivolity.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt loves to use our money to fly first class, on military flights, and heightened personal security. The man has a higher security detail than any previous EPA chief before him, and he has traveled to locations he didn’t really need to, such as his home in Tulsa and Morocco to shill for American oil companies. He also attempted to give huge pay raises to a couple of buddies in his department over the objections of the White House.

HUD chief Ben Carson spent $30,000 on a dining room set for his office. His excuse was that the old set was dangerous as it was liable to fall apart if you sat on it and there were rusty nails sticking out. Who knew that entering the office of the HUD Secretary would require a tetanus shot?

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spent over $1 million on eight flights. One of those was for a trip he took his snooty wife on to see the solar eclipse in Kentucky. You remember her. She’s the one who got into a tiff with a constituent who criticized her for boasting about her expensive name-brand clothing. You probably saw the pic of her holding a sheet of money with Stevie where she’s clad in all black. You’d be forgiven for mistaking them for Bond villains if they had any charm.

When Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke isn’t plotting to turn government monuments into oil fields, he enjoys taking charter flights, financed by you, to the Virgin Islands, Las Vegas and his home in Montana. One of those flights from Vegas to his home cost nearly $13,000. By the way, the Interior Department spent $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double-doors in his office.

David Shulkin was fired as head of the Veterans Administration for his scandals which seem far less than the ones being committed by Pruitt. Shulkin took his wife on a taxpayer-financed trip to Europe where they toured castles and attended Wimbledon.

Then we have the president himself. Trump plays a lot of golf despite telling us he wouldn’t have time for golf. It appears he doesn’t have time for much of anything else except for tweeting. Trump spends most weekends at one of his many resorts and while there, we foot the bill. The press and Freedom of Information groups are having a difficult time finding out how much Trump makes off us during his trips. But, we do know that one night at Mar-a-Lago can cost over $500 which has been spent on government employees.

Of course, we have to pay to protect the president, but we pay this president to protect the president. Donald Trump charges the Secret Service rent at his facilities and even charges them for golf cart rentals. It’s no wonder he leaves the White House so much. He can’t charge anyone rent for staying there.

Trump is about to spend the entire week at Mar-a-Lago which will turn a pretty penny for him. He is literally making money off being president. For the second time, he’ll be hosting the Prime Minister of Japan at the resort, so he’s also making money off our allies’ taxpayers.

So, make sure you don’t just file your taxes on time, but that you get your check in the mail too. I mean, it’s not like Donald Trump’s going to pay for his golf outings.

Creative notes: This cartoon is dated for April 19, which is two days after the tax deadline. People will probably still be feeling the pain at that time. But, I tell my clients the cartoons are not embargoed by the file date, which means they can run them at any time.

Here’s the video.

Please consider making a donation to keep the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. Reader contributions, small and large, really do help and are appreciated in a time of dwindling revenue for political cartoonists. You will also be supporting free speech and liberty while those in power are doing all they can to suppress it. You can also support by purchasing a signed print for $40.00. Just look at the right of this page and click the PayPal button, or you can email and make other arrangements. Thank you!