Trump spent $1m bailing out Donald Jr’s failed business in 2018, new tax returns show

Former president loaned three of his children $51,000

Former president Donald Trump bailed out his son Donald Trump Jr’s failed business to the tune of $1m in 2018, according to the former president’s tax returns released on Friday, The <em>New York</em> Times reported.

In 2010, the former president’s eldest son started Titan Atlas Manufacturing, which provided cast panels for prefabricated homes. But the company quickly ran into hard times. The Times reported in 2017 that it fell deeply into debt. That led to Mr Trump setting up a company called D B Pace to take over.

Mr Trump’s tax returns from 2018 show that the president suffered a $1m loss bailing his son’s beleaguered venture out. The Independent reached out to both Mr Trump and his son’s spokespeople.

The House Ways & Means Committee released the former president’s tax returns after a protracted legal battle. Mr Trump refused to release his tax returns throughout his two campaigns for president and his tenure in the White House under the guise that he was being audited.

But Mr Trump’s bailout of his son’s troubled business was not the only assistance he gave to the younger Mr Trump, nor was he the only Trump child to receive assistance from the president.

The Ways & Means Committee’s report said in a report released last week that the elder Mr Trump made loans to his eldest son, his daughter Ivanka Trump and his second-born son Eric Trump totaling $51,000 and reported income from the interest in 2015.

The report said that it raised “the question of whether the loans were bona fide arm’s length transactions, or whether the transfers were disguised gifts that could trigger gift tax and a disallowance of interest deductions by the related borrowers.”

In addition, in 2016, Mr Trump again reported interest income from the loans to those three children, which raises questions of whether they tried to avoid paying a gift tax. Mr Trump also reported interest income on his forms in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.