Donald Trump's tax returns show that he lost so much money in the mid-1980s to 1990s that he paid no income tax for eight out of 10 years during that period, according to a new report.

The income tax records were obtained by The New York Times, and represent the most detailed look into the president's personal taxes yet, after years in which Mr Trump had sought to keep the documents private.

Between 1985 and 1994, the documents show, Mr Trump lost tens of millions of dollars a year, with total losses adding up to $1.17bn for the decade.

According to The New York Times report on the taxes, Mr Trump's losses mostly came from his business holdings in casinos, hotels, and retail apartment space in his buildings. And, the paper reports, the sheer amount of losses during that time show that he lost more money than almost any other American taxpayer during that time, according to a comparison of his taxes to an annual comparison of high income earners compiled by the Internal Revenue Service.

The freshly released documents do not cover the years of interest to Congressional Democrats — who have demanded the Treasury Department release the president's returns, leading to a legal battle — but they do provide valuable insight into Mr Trump's history, and of the dire straights he found himself roughly 30 years ago.

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He is running on a similar platform of democratic socialist reform Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Joe Biden The former vice president recently faced scrutiny for inappropriate touching of women, but was thought to deal with the criticism well and has since maintained a front runner status in national polling EPA The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Elizabeth Warren The Massachusetts senator is a progressive Democrat, and a major supporter of regulating Wall Street Reuters The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Amy Klobuchar Klobuchar is a Minnesota senator who earned praise for her contribution to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Michael Bloomberg Michael Bloomberg, a late addition to the 2020 race, announced his candidacy after months of speculation in November. He has launched a massive ad-buying campaign and issued an apology for the controversial "stop and frisk" programme that adversely impacted minority communities in New York City when he was mayor Getty Images The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Tulsi Gabbard The Hawaii congresswoman announced her candidacy in January, but has faced tough questions on her past comments on LGBT+ rights and her stance on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Pete Buttigieg The centrist Indiana mayor and war veteran would be the first openly LGBT+ president in American history Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Deval Patrick The former Massachusetts governor launched a late 2020 candidacy and received very little reception. 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A lawyer for the president has said that the tax information provided to The New York Times was "demonstrably false", and that statements from the major American newspaper "about the president's tax returns and business from 30 years ago are highly inaccurate," but did not say what specifically was wrong.

Mr Trump has built his public persona and business by licensing his name, and making that brand synonymous with the luxury lifestyle. In the 2000s, the president then became a television celebrity, and further catapulted that image into American living rooms.

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Democrats are currently in a battle with the White House to gain access to the past six years of Mr Trump's tax returns, and whether Mr Trump had recent business dealings that include funding sources from foreign sources who would like to influence the president's decision making process.

Taken together, the newly released documents show that the president was far from the business genius he has publicly portrayed himself to be during that time, and that his approach to business was in stark contrast to that of his father, Fred Trump's.

While the senior Trump built a business empire around stable apartment rental buildings in Brooklyn and Queens, the president's business approach was much more erratic, shifting between different ideas as many of those ventures proved unwise.