Hillary Clinton attacks the business ‘genius’ of Donald Trump

Seizing on momentum building since the New York Times suggested Mr Trump could have avoided paying tax for 18 years, Mrs Clinton also mocked her opponent for apparently losing almost $1bn in casino investments in one year.

At a campaign stop in Ohio, the Democratic candidate for the White House told her supporters Mr Trump was in a league of his own by not releasing details of his tax affairs, adding he had “contributed nothing” to America.

“In a category by himself there’s Donald Trump,” she said.

“Well, you may have heard that he has long refused to release his tax returns, the way every other nominee for president has done for decades.

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“Now, a lot of us were wondering ‘what is he hiding?’ It must be really terrible. Well, the New York Times has discovered at least part of the answer.

“Back in the 1990s Trump apparently lost a billion dollars in a single year on bad investments and failing casinos. Now how anybody can lose a dollar let alone a billion dollars in the casino industry is kind of beyond me, right?”

Claiming Mr Trump left workers and taxpayers to pick up the bill from his failed enterprises, Mrs Clinton said he had “taken corporate excess and made a business model out it,” adding: “It’s Trump first and everyone else last.”

Despite the attack, Mr Trump’s tax records published by the New York Times do not point to irregularities or unlawful tax dodging and his campaign said he had paid “hundreds of millions” of dollars in other kinds of taxes over the years.

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On ABC’s This Week, Trump supporter and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called him “a genius at how to take advantage of legal remedies that can help your company survive and grow”.

On Twitter, the candidates continued to fire off the sort of personal attacks that are increasingly setting the tone for the race for the White House. news.sky.com