Its a hugely complex story with the sort of math calculations that even university math profs bail from - but the NYT caught the one tiny detail that really mattered and moved it right to the front of a very large class.
It takes a form of journalistic genius to see that this $750 figure was worse - far, far, worse - in the eyes of most American tax-paying voters than the many, many years he either paid no taxes at all, or even got a massive refund instead.
I didn’t see this at first - I am not journalistic genius.
But I am a great slogan maker.
Let me tell ya, honey, its really really stupid to now see buttons that say “I paid more taxes than President Trump”.
Its what we drones in the backrooms of the comedy & satire industry call “ telling the joke & then explaining the punch line.”
Better, far better, is a button that simply reads “I paid more taxes”.
Come on politicos : credit your would-be supporters with the ability to fill in the blanks....
Yes Orwell would have wrote the same "I paid more taxes" as short as you can say something even if that was a book long review of a book.
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