Denying, defending and numb: Voters not moved by Trump taxes

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — Danielle Fairbank closed the tailgate of her fire-engine red pickup truck in a Target parking lot in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and offered a hearty “Fake news!” to dismiss reports that President Donald Trump paid only $750 in income taxes in 2017. Yet, interviews with voters in swing-voting Wisconsin show scant evidence of damaging impact from The New York Times’ reporting this week on Trump’s long-secret tax returns. You can’t blame him.” Likewise, Cathy Gerring, a 60-year-old part-time employee from the north Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood echoed, “I just feel he’s a smart business owner.” Mary Herrick, down the street from Willer in Oshkosh’s upscale subdivision notes Trump’s donation of the president’s salary as a counter to criticism of his tax burden. “None of it surprises me,” the 49-year-old mental health counselor said unloading her groceries outside Pick ‘n Save on Oshkosh’s middle-income south side. Bob Poeschl, a politically independent member of Oshkosh’s city council, calls revelations of Trump’s tax maneuvers “appalling, but typical of this president.” “I find it out of touch with the American public and how hard they have to work to get,” Poeschl, a low-income housing manager, said on the front porch in Oshkosh’s politically mixed Washington Avenue neighborhood.