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On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast:
USA TODAY National Correspondent Donovan Slack has the latest on what former President Donald Trump’s tax returns reveal.
USA TODAY Deputy Managing Editor for Politics Luciana Lopez looks back at the year in politics.
Barbara Walters has died.
USA Today National Correspondent Will Carless talks about drag queen brunches.
It’s time for the College Football Playoff.
Podcasts:True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.
Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below.This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson: Good morning and Happy New Year’s Eve. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know, Saturday, the 31st of December 2022.
Today, Trump’s tax returns have been released, plus, we look back at the year in politics and we remember Barbara Walters.
The top tax writing committee in congress released former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to the general public yesterday. That ends a years-long battle and sheds light on a complicated labyrinth of businesses and holdings, typical of billionaires, but rarely seen in detail by the public. For more, producer PJ Elliott spoke to USA Today national correspondent Donovan Slack.
PJ Elliott: Donovan, thanks so much for joining 5 Things today.
Donovan Slack: Thanks for having me.
PJ Elliott: Let’s start with this. What have we learned so far about former President Trump and his taxes?
Donovan Slack: There’s thousands of pages and we’re still going through them. But we know a few things by what experts last week flagged before they were released, and some of those things include businesses where the expenses exactly equal the income, effectively zeroing out taxes. That’s one item we’re looking closely at.
There were loans to his children, including Ivanka and Don, Jr. and Eric, that the experts questioned whether they were actually gifts that should be taxed or whether they were, in fact, loans as he claimed on his tax returns, in which case they would’ve accumulated interest and made that interest deductible for borrowers.
We don’t actually know what’s what yet, so we’re still looking. It’s really important not to jump to conclusions as experts have told us.
PJ Elliott: Do we know if Trump, while in office, signed any tax legislation that he directly benefited from?
Donovan Slack: Yeah, we can’t answer that definitively right now. I would guess they benefited him in some way, just by nature of his income bracket. We know that it helped a lot of people.
PJ Elliott: Did the tax returns indicate any business success or failure?
Donovan Slack: They don’t. I mean, that’s one of the most difficult things to sort through because, obviously, there was a lot of losses claimed, but those losses offset income and those were really about reducing the tax bill. So tax returns are not really a good barometer for how successful a business is.
PJ Elliott: So what happens next? Is there anything that will come from them being released?
Donovan Slack: I think we have to wait and see. I think we will have days, weeks, if not months, of sifting through these documents. Not just us in the media, but experts out there and trying to figure out what does it all mean.
I mean, Democrats argued when they obtained the taxes that they wanted them released and they wanted access to them so that it would guide future tax law, changes to tax laws or potential changes as it were, so we have to see if that’s actually going to happen. Of course, the chances are quite slim with Republicans taking over the house next week, so we’ll have to wait and see.
PJ Elliott: Is there anything else that you feel the listeners should know from this situation?
Donovan Slack: I think it’s important to note that the former president issued a statement saying he’s really upset with Democrats for releasing the returns. He called it a witch hunt and said he’s been the subject of a witch hunt since the day he descended the escalator in 2015 when he first wanted to run for president or announced he was running for president.
