As a New York Times report revealed details of Donald Trump's tax returns going back to two decades saying that he paid just US $750 in federal income taxes in the year he was elected US president, Twitterati mocked the former business tycoon over a picture of him shared in the same year.
The picture shared on February 25, 2016 shows Trump signing a document as a pile of papers is kept next to him.
"Signing a recent tax return- isn't this ridiculous?" he captioned the image.
The Times report revealed that Trump paid US $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another US $750, according to the report.
Twitterati mocked the US President over the picture, with some even claiming that it was just "blank printing paper." The replies on Tweets are worth seeing.
Here are some replies to Trump's 2016 tweet:
Trump entered the 2016 presidential race as a Republican and was elected in a surprise victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The report came just days before Trump's first presidential debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden on Tuesday and weeks before the November 3 presidential election.
Trump paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years - largely because he reported losing much more money than he made, the report said.
The US president immediately dismissed the report as "totally fake news".
US presidents are not required by law to release details of their personal finances, but every one since Richard Nixon has done so. Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings, is the only president in modern times not to make them public.
He has, in fact, fielded court challenges against those seeking access to his returns, including the US House, which is suing for access to Trump's tax returns as part of congressional oversight.
According to the NYT investigative report, Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public.
"His reports to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president," it said.
The report claimed to have obtained tax-return data extending over two decades for Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organisation, including detailed information from his first two years in office. It does not include his personal returns for 2018 or 2019.
Calling it 'fake news', Trump refuted the claims that he did not pay income tax in 10 of the last 15 years.
Speaking during a press briefing, Trump said, "It's fake news, it's totally fake news. Made up. Fake." "Actually, I paid tax, and you will see that as soon as my tax returns - It's under audit, they have been under audit for a long time." Earlier, The New York Times had reported that Trump had received USD 427.4m through 2018 from his reality television programme and other endorsement and licensing deals but did not pay any income tax in 10 of the last 15 years.
Responding to The New York Times' report, the US President said: "The New York Times wants to create a little bit of a story. They are doing anything they can."
