Donald Trump’s tax maneuvers don’t show he’s a crook. They show he’s a moron.

He could have gotten this issue out of the way months ago, on his own terms, and even made it a virtue on the campaign trail. Instead it’s blown up in an embarrassing way, barely a month before the election.

This is the “really smart” guy who’s going to do all these “great deals” and outwit our enemies? Really?

Read:15 questions on the economy for Donald Trump

Trump has hidden his tax returns for months. But, in case you missed it, the New York Times scooped him this (Sunday) morning after someone sent it a copy of Trump’s 1995 return.

That showed he was carrying forward nearly $1 billion in tax losses from his business collapse in 1990. The Times observed that such massive tax loss carry-overs could have sheltered most or all of Trump’s income over the subsequent 18 years. In other words, the man pays little or no income tax, and hasn’t for at least two decades.

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Trump even appeared to confirm that conclusion. His spokesman pointedly said that Trump had paid other taxes over that time, such as taxes on his properties. Trump’s lawyer also threatened to sue the Times for illegally revealing his tax return, a confirmation that the documents were genuine.

Yes, Trump looks like a hypocrite by avoiding taxes while complaining about the state of our country’s road.

But that appearance is deceptive.

Read:If Donald Trump is such a great builder, why aren’t other builders backing him?

Donald Trump has done nothing wrong if he has legally used the tax code to minimize his taxes. All private citizens do that. I suspect most politicians do as well.

I take every legal tax deduction I can. So do you. So do your friends. So do reporters at the New York Times. So, I bet, does Times publisher Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger.

A rich guy takes big deductions, where you and I take smaller ones. But that’s because he’s rich.

The real “scandal” of Trump’s tax avoidance isn’t that he did it, but that it’s legal — that loopholes exist that allow very rich people to pay little or no tax. That is really the fault of Congress, not the citizens who use the loopholes.

If Trump had any real smarts, that’s exactly what he would have argued.

Months ago.

On his own terms.

At a press conference where he unveiled detailed plans to close those loopholes — and was surrounded by tax experts and the like who could praise his proposals.

Read:Why Sean Hannity of Fox News might get the last laugh

That might have killed the story about how he is hiding his tax returns.

Instead, here we are. After months of petulantly refusing to release his tax returns, and preposterously claiming an “audit” for his alibi, Trump is now forced to “handle” the issue on defense.

So on a Sunday morning, barely a month before the election, he is firing off lawyers’ letters and trying to defend himself on Twitter, where he has attacked the “failing” New York Times. (Question: If they are “failing,” why are you being forced to defend yourself from their scoop?)

What is wrong with him? This was an iceberg he could have seen way ahead and steered right around, easily. Instead it’s “Iceberg? What iceberg? Full steam ahead!…(Crash! Glug, glug, glug…)”

I honestly don’t understand why these rich presidential candidates can’t handle their finances properly from the point of view of a political campaign. Mitt Romney made a total hash of his tax returns and it hurt him in a pretty close election. Trump has bungled this entire issue badly.

In both cases the men made exactly the same mistake: By screwing up a simple tactical challenge, they undermined their claims to be competent, hands-on, can-do executives.

Ridiculous. And Trump, like Romney, has no one to blame but himself.