NEWSDonald Trump Claimed Nearly $1 Billion In Losses In 2-Year Period, Former Accountant Testifies
Nov. 25 2022, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
Despite the resounding television success of former President Donald Trump’s reality series The Apprentice, it seems 2009 and 2010 may have been surprisingly brutal when it came to the ex-Commander-in-Chief’s wallet.
On Tuesday, November 23, former Trump Organization accountant Donald Bender testified under oath, telling prosecutor Susan Hoffinger that the reality TV mogul reported losing nearly $1 billion in that two-year span amid the criminal fax fraud trial against the previous POTUS’s namesake company.
"Do you recall in 2010 Donald Trump had losses of almost $200 million on his personal tax returns?" the attorney asked Bender, who worked with Mazars USA, the organization that assisted the politician and his organization with preparing their taxes.
"I believe so," he stated before the Manhattan Supreme Court.
"Do you recall in 2009, Donald Trump had, his personal tax returns had losses around $700 million?" Hoffinger continued, to which Bender replied that the figure in question "sounds about right.”
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Yet it seems these two years weren’t the only instances in which Trump reported to be in the red on his tax returns — the Trump: The Art of the Deal co-author also claimed to be doing poorly every year in the 10 years between 2009 and 2019.
"There are losses for all these years," Bender quipped of the decade-long period.
Bender’s testimony amid the explosive trial comes one week after Trump formally announced that he’d be throwing his hat in the ring amid the upcoming 2024 presidential election after months of teasing his ambitions for a second term in the Oval Office.
“America's comeback starts right now,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in a speech at his Palm Beach, Fla., Mar-a-Lago compound on Tuesday, November 15. "In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for President of the United States."
ABC News previously reported on the former POTUS’s major tax revelation.
