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'They'd call me Beijing Barry': Obama mocks Trump for having Chinese bank account

Obama says he may have paid more income tax while working for Baskin Robbins as a teen than his successor did in his first year of presidency

Stuti Mishra
Thursday 22 October 2020 08:16 BST
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'They'd call me Beijing Barry': Obama mocks Trump for having Chinese bank account

Making his first in-person appearance at a rally for the Democrat nominee Joe Biden, former president Barack Obama went all in on the recent revelations about Donald Trump’s tax record, including his “secret” Chinese bank account

Addressing a crowd of cheering supporters sat in their own cars at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Mr Obama joked that if he had maintained a Chinese account during his own presidency, he would have been dubbed “Beijing Barry”.

“How is that possible? A secret Chinese bank account. Listen, can you imagine if I had had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for re-election? You think Fox News might have been a little concerned about that? They would have called me Beijing Barry,” said Mr Obama.

He added: “It is not a good idea to have a president who owes a bunch of money to people overseas.”

Mr Obama’s reference to Chinese bank accounts came following a report by the New York Times that said a Trump business kept an account in that country, which wasn’t disclosed in public financial releases because it wasn’t registered under Mr Trump personally.

An attorney for the Trump Organisation, Alan Garten, told the Times that Mr Trump’s company opened the account in China to pay local taxes there and while they pursued Chinese business opportunities.

“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialised and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Garten said. “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”

Continuing his scathing attack on Mr Trump, the former president made another reference to a recent Times report when he said: “Of the taxes Donald Trump pays, he may be sending more to foreign governments than he pays in the United States. His first year in the White House, he only paid $750 in federal income tax.”

He adds: “My first job was in a Baskin Robbins when I was 13 years old, I think I might have paid more tax. Working at a… dispensing ice-cream. How is that possible? How many people here have paid less than that?”

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