While introducing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in Omaha, Neb., famed businessman Warren Buffett launched a broadside against her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
Buffett slammed Trump on three issues:
Trump’s tax returns. Buffett chided Trump for saying he can’t release his tax returns because he’s being audited. “I’ve got news for him,” Buffett said. “I’m under audit too. And I would be delighted to meet him any time before the election. We’ll both bring our tax returns. There are no rules against showing our tax returns and we’ll just let people ask questions about the items that are on there.” Summarizing, Buffett said: “He’s not afraid of the IRS, he’s afraid because of you.”
Trump has argued that he doesn’t need to release his tax returns because he has submitted a financial disclosure form with the Federal Election Commission, as required of all federal candidates. “As someone who has filled out financial statements and an income tax return, these are two very different animals,” Buffett said. “You will learn a whole lot more if he produces his income tax return.”
Trump’s public company. In 1995, Trump formed a public company, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, to house his casino interests. Buffett: “That was the only time Donald Trump went to the American people and said, ‘I’m a winner, invest in my company. … Over the next 10 years, the company loses money every year, every single year. He takes $44 million in compensation. If a monkey had thrown a dart at the stock page it would have made 150%. People who believe in [Trump] came away losing well over 90 cents on the dollar. They got back less than a dime.” Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, later renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts, endured two of the four business bankruptcies Trump is notorious for.
Trump’s “sacrifices.” In a speech at the Democratic national convention, Khizr Khan, whose son Humayun Khan was an Army officer killed in Iraq in 2004, said Trump had “sacrificed nothing.” Trump responded a few days later by telling ABC News, “I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success.”
Buffett is not impressed. “No member of the Buffett family has gone to Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said. “No member of the Trump family has gone to Iraq or Afghanistan. We’ve both done extremely well. Our families haven’t sacrificed anything, Donald Trump hasn’t sacrificed anything.”
Buffett said Trump’s remarks reminded him of the McCarthy hearings on communist infiltration of the U.S. government in the 1950s, and of a witness who finally struck back at one of McCarthy’s slanderous statements against an innocent man by saying to the senator, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” Buffett: “And I ask Donald Trump, have you no sense of decency, sir?”
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. But keep your eyes on Trump’s Twitter account.
Rick Newman’s latest book is Liberty for All: A Manifesto for Reclaiming Financial and Political Freedom. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.