55%. this is also a time when that poll showed 54% of americans think the country is heading in the right direction. the president and the clinton campaign are hoping his popularity and approval ratings can help get her over the finish line. carol? atika jones reporting live from the white house, thank you. we know donald trump likes to brag about not paying taxes. now we re learning how he did it. the new york times reporting that mr. trump potentially escaped paying tens of millions of dollars in the early 90s by using tactics that are now illegal. with me now to explain is cnn money s chief business correspondent, christine romans. good morning, carol. this is a reminder we have not seen his tax returns. the first presidential candidate in 40 years of either party to not show us. so we re relying on what new york times has seen. the new york times painting a picture of donald trump using the tax code to benefit from losing other people s money. this is the 1990s, a time
she s going to name him mike. we got no name? what a good boy. hey, handsome boy. you don t have a name yet. we ll see what we can do. hey, handsome. bet you can t look at people in the room and figure out who that belongs to. seriously? she s my little minion. you lost some sort of bet, sweetheart. oh, my god. are we going to paint this one at all? well, you know i don t know about painting a pit bull. this dog is awesome. okay. that s a good boy. all right, so, everybody does the same basic kind of work. that s obviously you did that, clearly. i don t color, no. why? i haven t learned yet. is it complicated? no, i don t think it is. you don t think so? it might be.
what do you call him? she s going to name him mike. we got no name? what a good boy. hey, mannedsome boy. you don t have a name yet. we ll see what we can do. hey, handsome. bet you can t look at people in the room and figure out who that belongs to. seriously? she s my little minion. you lost some sort of bet, sweetheart. oh, my god. are we going to paint this one at all? well, you know i don t know about painting a pit bull. this dog is awesome. okay. that s a good boy. all right, so, everybody does the same basic kind of work. that s obviously you did that, clearly. i don t color, no. why? i haven t learned yet. is it complicated?
of the things you re describing would have followed a different course. so, the time lost was a terrible loss. no question about it. but i think, also, you re painting a somewhat gloomy picture. for example, the kurds in the north are operating a mini state which is amazingly prosperous and amazing relations with turkey, which we always thought would be difficult. it s democratic maybe by a very low standard. but it s, it s night and day in improvement over how these people were suffering under saddam. bottom line. given what you know today, would you have done it, again? i certainly would have done it differently. particularly with respect to counterinsurgency strategy, let s be clear about that. there might have been other ways of pursuing this problem, but it was not going to go away. the notion that we did it or didn t do it, something was going to happen. and everything we know,
are flat, but the success of counterinsurgency is quite clear. look at what you were able to achieve, which is iraq is now, it s almost divided state. the kurds in the north issue their own passports and speak their on language and have their own army. there is no national compact. the sunnis still feel deeply discriminated and shia militias and terrorism every day. so, if the goal was, which i m sure was for you, the creation of a modern, you know, potentially liberal, open democratic country, you look at iraq today. it s tough to come to that conclusion. well, first of all, what i saying is if we had done the right thing from the start, many of the things you re describing would have followed a different course. so, the time lost was a terrible loss. no question about it. but i think, also, you re painting a somewhat gloomy picture. for example, the kurds in the