Matt Wilstein
Mon, August 1, 2022
Comedy Central
“This is one of the wildest things ever,” Trevor Noah said on Monday night’s Daily Show. And even though the bar couldn’t be higher when it comes to Donald Trump scandals, he wasn’t exaggerating.
The host was talking about the recent death of the former president’s first wife, Ivana Trump. “Well, it turns out The Donald may have managed to turn even that into a scam,” Noah said, explaining that Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka’s mother’s burial at Trump’s New Jersey golf club may have been an elaborate way for the business to avoid paying taxes on the land.
“Wow, wow, wow, wow!” Noah said as the audience groaned. “A lot of people say, ‘I’ll pay taxes over my dead body!’ Trump means it. Just someone else’s body.”
The host said that this just feels like a “step too far” for Trump and that he “wouldn’t even laugh at” the idea if it was a bad joke premise.
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“If somebody said to me, ‘Donald Trump’s ex-wife died, he’s probably going to bury her on his golf course to save on taxes,’ I’d be like, ‘That’s not cool, man,’” he added. “But it turns out, Trump was like, ‘Say more… I’m going to send this to my accountant.’”
Later in the segment, correspondent Desi Lydic managed to work an even better joke about the scandal into an unrelated bit. “God, I feel for all of Trump’s wives,” she said. “Even in the afterlife, they still have to deal with his balls coming at them.”
Trevor Noah Spots The ‘Serial Killer’ Law Trump’s Now Using To His Advantage
Ed Mazza
Tue, August 2, 2022
Trevor Noah said former President Donald Trump has somehow managed to turn the death of ex-wife Ivana Trump into a tax scam.
Trump’s first wife, who died in July after a fall at the age of 73, was laid to rest last week at his Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey, which could give the property certain tax benefits.
“Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow,” Noah said. “A lot of people say, ‘I’ll pay taxes over my dead body.’ Trump means it ― for someone else’s body.”
Noah also wondered how this tax break had passed in the first place.
“All this tax break does is incentivize you to be a weirdo,” Noah said. “Who came up with this? It almost feels like the law was written by a serial killer. Just like: ‘There should be a law that if you bury a body in your yard, you don’t have to pay taxes anymore.’”
Trump's Early Plans For Garish Bedminster Mausoleum Were Buried By Local Officials
Donald Trump’s plans to build a grandiose family mausoleum with 19-foot stone obelisks on the grounds of his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, were shot down in 2007 by local officials who found the design garish and out of character with the area.
Now there’s a single grave on the course — for Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of the former president and mother of his three oldest children. Following her July 20 funeral, she was buried not far from the clubhouse and behind the first tee in a bare plot with a spray of flowers and small granite plaque.
The grave appears to come with tax advantages for Trump and his golf course.
New Jersey tax code provides a “cemetery” with a “trifecta of tax avoidance,” with breaks for property, income and sales taxes, Brooke Harrington, a Dartmouth sociology professor and self-described tax researcher, wrote on Twitter. The state requires no minimum number of graves to qualify as a cemetery, she added.
The tax code says any land dedicated to cemetery purposes is exempt from all taxes. Cemetery companies are specifically exempt from paying any real estate taxes or personal property taxes on their lands, as well as business taxes, sales taxes, income taxes and inheritance taxes.
In the New Jersey Law Revision Commission, a “cemetery company” is defined as “a person, corporation, association or other entity that owns or operates a cemetery, reported Business Insider.
It’s unclear whether Trump, who famously pays almost no federal income tax, intends to pursue the tax advantages and how much money is at stake.
The cemetery business idea has been kicking around for a while in the Trump family.
Tax documents from the Trump Family Trust, published by ProPublica, show the trust sought in 2014 to designate a property in Hackettstown, New Jersey, about 20 miles from the Bedminster golf course, as a nonprofit cemetery company.
Trump’s early mausoleum idea in 2007 got nowhere.
Bedminster’s then-Mayor Robert Holtaway argued before the city council that the over-the-top structure could attract the wrong kind of people, The New Yorker reported. He compared it to a place “in Austria where a Nazi war criminal was buried” that “became a tourist attraction,” according to the magazine.
Trump suggested the mausoleum could have versatile uses — such as a spot for weddings, and over the years submitted various other plans for cemeteries on his property.
In 2014, The Trump Organization filed plans to build twin graveyards at Bedminster, The Washington Post reported. One would be a 284-plot cemetery offering gravesites for sale. The other would include 10 plots overlooking the first tee for Trump and his family.
“Mr. Trump ... specifically chose this property for his final resting place as it is his favorite property,” his company wrote in the plans.
Trump’s parents and his brother Fred are buried together at All Faiths Cemetery in Queens, New York.
Ivana Trump, the first person buried at Bedminster, died July 14 at age 73 in her Manhattan home after a fall down the stairs. Her death was ruled accidental.
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