WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump shifted his position overnight on a sweeping New York Times investigative report on his taxes, falsely accusing the paper Monday of using "illegally obtained information" after initially saying Sunday that the article was "totally fake news."
In a series of tweets Monday morning, Trump did not explicitly deny the revelations that he paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and that he paid almost no taxes in other years because of huge losses in many of his businesses.
Instead, Trump lashed out at the suggestion that he is not as wealthy and successful as he has repeatedly claimed to be, insisting -- without providing any evidence -- that his finances are in very good shape.
"If you look at the extraordinary assets owned by me, which the Fake News hasn't, I am extremely under leveraged -- I have very little debt compared to the value of assets," he insisted on Twitter.
According to the Times article, Trump is heavily in debt, and much of what he owes to lenders will have to be paid back in just a few years.
"He is personally responsible for loans and other debts totaling $421 million, with most of it coming due within four years," the report says. "Should he win reelection, his lenders could be placed in the unprecedented position of weighing whether to foreclose on a sitting president."
The report revealed that Trump paid no federal income taxes in 11 of 18 years that the Times examined because of huge losses in other businesses that Trump owns. The president used provisions in the tax law to offset his tax obligations with the losses.
The article notes that the Times "obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office."
Despite Trump's allegation that the report was based on information that was gotten illegally, the report noted that "all of the information the Times obtained was provided by sources with legal access to it."
It added: "The Times was able to verify portions of it by comparing it with publicly available information and confidential records previously obtained by the Times."
On Sunday night, Trump told reporters at a news conference that he had paid "a lot" in taxes. He also claimed that he was not contacted before the article ran, despite the fact that it quotes a lawyer for the Trump Organization.
By Monday morning, he was insisting on Twitter that he had paid "many millions of dollars" in taxes. He did not specify whether he meant federal income taxes, and he complained that he "was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation and tax credits."
"The Fake News Media, just like Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information & only bad intent," he wrote on Twitter.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Ethics experts say the level of debt that the Times report says the president is personally liable for raises national security concerns he could be manipulated to sway U.S. policy by organizations or individuals to whom he's indebted.
According to the Times report, of the $421 million of debt owed by the president, more than $300 million in loans will come due in the next four years.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was blunt about the potential implications. "He may be vulnerable to financial blackmail from a hostile foreign power and God knows what else," said Warren, a frequent Trump critic.
"Americans should be concerned about the president's debt because it's a national security risk for our country," said Donald Sherman, deputy director of the nonprofit government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "This is information that the president has aggressively and repeatedly tried to keep away from the public."
Trump, citing an ongoing Internal Revenue Service audit, has refused to follow the post-Watergate precedent set by other presidents of releasing his tax returns, so the complexities of his financial interests and who he does business with have remained opaque. He's fighting ongoing court battles with New York's attorney general, Manhattan's district attorney and two House committees that all want the records.
Richard Painter, who served as chief ethics attorney in President George W. Bush's administration, also noted that Trump-owned companies have declared bankruptcy six times, raising the question: Why have lenders been willing to keep risking loans of such enormous amounts?
"Why would banks assume the risk on these loans?" Painter said. "Or did someone else quietly assume risk of that loan for the bank to make it happen?"
Trump, according to his latest financial disclosure statement, reported that he had 14 loans on 12 properties.
One lender, Germany-based Deutsche Bank, continued to do business with Trump even after he defaulted in 2008 on a loan for his Chicago hotel and condo development. Trump filed suit against the bank and others that he blamed for his inability to repay.
But Deutsche Bank's private banking division continued to lend to Trump, including $125 million to finance the purchase and renovation of his Doral golf resort in 2012, according to previous disclosures.
DISCLOSURE UNCLEAR
Trump in a series of tweets early Monday suggested that he may release a financial statement that spells out all assets, properties and debts.
During an appearance later in the day, the president ignored a reporter's question about when he might release such a statement, and the White House would not comment on when he might follow through. He said repeatedly before his election that he would release his actual taxes but never has.
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said that a separate financial statement from Trump would shed little light on his business dealings if he does not disclose who his business partners are in his various holdings.
"The Trump Organization consists of hundreds of LLCs [limited liability corporations] that have been listed on his financial disclosure forms," Clark said. "One of the things that Trump has benefited from and that oligarchs and money launderers benefit from is opaqueness of LLCs, ... the ease of which individuals can hide their assets, can hide their financial interests."
HOTELS, GOLF COURSES
Trump refused to divest his business interests after his 2016 victory, and left day-to-day operation of his family's real estate and other holdings to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric. Still, the president has benefited personally from U.S. and foreign government activity at his properties since his election and hasn't shied away from promoting his hotels and golf courses.
Republicans have held at least 88 political events at his properties, the president has visited his hotels and golf courses more than 500 times, and at least 13 foreign governments have held events at Trump establishments, according to a tally by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The administration drew criticism last year when Vice President Mike Pence, while visiting Dublin for meetings, lodged at Trump International Golf Links and Hotel more than 180 miles away in Doonbeg, Ireland. And Trump scrapped a plan to hold a meeting of the Group of Seven world leaders at one of his Florida properties last year after bipartisan criticism.
In the run-up to his 2016 election victory, Trump played down his bankruptcies as a smart business strategy and even referred to himself as the "king of debt."
"I've always loved debt, I must be honest with you," Trump said during a campaign rally. "I don't love it for countries, but I love it individually. If things work out good that's great, if they don't, you go renegotiate."
DEMOCRATS RESPOND
Top Democratic lawmakers on Monday called Trump's tax avoidance galling, but seized on his debt as perhaps more concerning.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on MSNBC that "our responsibility is to protect and defend and we have to make sure we know what exposure the president of the United States has, and what an impact it has on national security decisions for our country."
Painter said that if Trump were attempting to appoint someone with his debt load to a high-profile government position, the nominee would almost certainly face trouble getting a security clearance. Indeed, inability or unwillingness to satisfy debts and a history of not meeting financial obligations could disqualify any federal employee from receiving a security clearance, according to government guidelines.
Peter Schweizer, the president of the Government Accountability Institute, said, "The question is also one of whether the loans are tied to actual assets such as buildings, etc., or was the political figure granted special favors in getting loans. Politicians and their families can engage in commercial transactions; the question is whether the loans are unusual and unique compared to others in the marketplace."
Trump is hardly the first president to contend with debt, either in office or later in life.
Thomas Jefferson, whose peak net worth in current dollars reached $236.8 million according to research by 24/7 Wall Street, died in debt. The debt was accrued during and after his presidency -- as well as by relatives -- and his family sold dozens of enslaved people from his Monticello estate to satisfy his liabilities.
On the other hand, Barack Obama, in his second term, encouraged American homeowners to refinance their mortgages as rates dropped well below what he was paying, but he said he and his wife were holding off.
"When you're president, you have to be a little careful about these transactions, so we haven't refinanced," Obama explained at the time.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael D. Shear of The New York Times and by Aamer Madhani and Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press.