Good evening.

The wealthiest president ever does not want to talk about reporting that says he paid

less in federal income taxes in his first year in office than perhaps any president on

record and maybe less than most tax-paying Americans.

Tonight we'll look at the legal and national security implications and there are many,

but first just the simple striking facts starting with the president's odd silence.

He had a chance to talk when he was in front of the microphone twice today, but walked

away on both occasions.

Thank you.

Rare, he doesn't gravitate toward a camera.

If he hadn't walked away and instead had taken questions, it might have been pointed

out to him that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the first president for whom we have records,

paid $11,364.33 in federal income tax and that was back in 1933.

There's a lot of money back there.

Donald J. Trump by contrast, $750 in 2017, the same $750, well probably a different actual

$750, but the same amount in 2016 and nothing at all according to New York Times in 10

of the 15 years before that.

That of course comes from the report published in New York Times and it's based on, quote,

tax return data extending over more than two decades from Mr. Trump and the hundreds of

companies that make up his business organization including detailed information from his first

two years in office.

Just think about this, this is information the Trump organization was providing to the

...