Donald Trump Ruined My Favorite Thing

I don’t want to publicly share my income anymore. 😢

There’s a lot to discuss about last night’s debates, and—thanks to Donald Trump—much of it is directly related to the concept of personal finance.

But my heart broke when I heard Trump say this, and thank you to the Washington Post for the transcript:

The first Trump-Clinton presidential debate transcript, annotated

I don’t mind releasing [my tax returns] — I’m under a routine audit. And it’ll be released. And — as soon as the audit’s finished, it will be released.

But you will learn more about Donald Trump by going down to the federal elections, where I filed a 104-page essentially financial statement of sorts, the forms that they have. It shows income — in fact, the income — I just looked today — the income is filed at $694 million for this past year, $694 million. If you would have told me I was going to make that 15 or 20 years ago, I would have been very surprised.

That’s my thing, Trump! You made it weird! I was totally happy to publicly share my income—and what I pay in taxes—with everybody, and I’ve been doing it for years, and I’ve also been surprised at what I’ve been able to earn, and now it’s just gross.

Trump repeated his income statement later in the debate, noting that it’s “really not a lot of money,” which is also something I’ve said more than once, I literally tell you how much discretionary cash I have left over after I set aside money for taxes and other expenses, and sometimes it isn’t a lot of money.

Then he followed up and/or contradicted himself by saying “I have a tremendous income,” which is also something I’ve said, if you count “I’m earning more than I ever have in my life right now.” At that point in the debates I was ready to curl up in a ball and imagine a world in which Donald Trump and I are in no way alike.

I’m not going to stop doing this—it’ll take more than Donald Trump to stop me sharing my freelance income and how much I pay in taxes—but let’s all acknowledge right now that it felt embarrassing to hear the same words coming out of his mouth that often come out of mine.

UGH POLITICS.

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