'PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!'

Maybe now we know why President Trump is so reluctant to release his tax returns- though how his supporter are able to argue with straight faces that this is not a major red light remains something of a mystery.

The New York Times reports that Mr. Trump sustained huge financial losses over an entire decade- in fact, greater losses than any other individual American taxpayer.

The source for the Times' story is the detailed information which the IRS keeps from a sampling of high-income taxpayers each year. It seems that in 1990 and 1991 his core business losses more than doubled those of those nearest to him in income, totaling more than $250 million each year.

Mr. Trump ran in no small measure on his image as an astute businessman. At the time, those who paid close attention questioned whether he was any such thing. Literally every business he has ever run has gone into bankruptcy. That part of his personal fortune that was not inherited was made in real estate investments, not all of which would have put him in a particularly favorable light had the details been generally known,

Many people believed that his pattern of associating with unsavory individuals and his habit of cutting ethical corners might be the reason why he didn't want his income tax returns to become public knowledge (according to the IRS, and in view of the number of previous presidents who had released their returns even while under audit, Mr. Trump's claim that his hands were somehow tied in the matter is preposterous). Others suggested that his returns might show that he is substantially less wealthy than he claims to be. But whatever else may be revealed by those returns, the New York Times story points to what in itself would have been ample motivation for Mr. Trump to want to keep his financial details under wraps: they would document the argument that his reputation as an astute businessman is pretty much hype, and that in fact he's a pretty lousy one.

An administration based largely on smoke and mirrors and headed by a self-confessed con artist would probably survive even such a potentially devastating revelation. After all, his supporters for the most part have a long-established pattern of simply dismissing any negative information about Mr. Trump out of hand as "fake news." But if there's one thing a narcissist who has built a public reputation as an astute businessman would not be able to handle, it would be for the world to find out that he's actually a rather inept one.