Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said Sunday that a New York Times report that shows Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE may have legally avoided taxes for years shows the businessman is a “genius.”

“My response is he’s a genius ... [an] absolute genius,” Giuliani, a Trump adviser, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

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“This was a perfectly legal application of the tax code, and he would’ve been a fool not to take advantage of it."

The New York Times reported late Saturday that a $916 million loss on Trump’s 1995 income tax returns could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income tax for up to 18 years.

“Not only that — he would have probably breached his fiduciary duty to his investors, his business,” Giuliani said Sunday.

“You have an obligation when you run a business to maximize the profits,” Giuliani said. “And if there is a tax law that says, 'I can deduct this,' you deduct it. If you fail to deduct it, people can sue you.”