Warren Buffet rebukes Donald Trump, questions his business skills

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Monday campaigned alongside US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a rowdy rally in his home state of Nebraska, where he challenged Republican Donald Trump to release his tax returns and questioned Mr Trump’s business acumen.

Mr Trump, a New York real estate developer making his first run at public office, has said he cannot release his tax returns, a ritual of U.S. presidential campaigns, until the Internal Revenue Service has completed an audit.

“Now I’ve got news for him,” said Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate is based in Omaha.

“I’m under audit, too, and I would be delighted to meet him anyplace, anytime, before the election. “I’ll bring my tax return, he can bring his tax return ... and let people ask us questions about the items that are on there,” Buffett added, saying Trump was “afraid” not of the tax-collecting IRS but of voters.

In response, Mr Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks said: “As you know, Mr Trump is undergoing a routine audit.”

She had no immediate comment when asked to respond to Mr Buffett saying that he too was under audit but would release his tax returns.

Mr Trump has asserted his success as a businessman qualifies him to lead the country, but Mr Buffett, who backs Ms Clinton in the November 8 election, said Mr Trump lost money the only time he went to the American people and asked them to invest.

He said it was in 1995 when Mr Trump listed his Trump hotels and casino resorts on the New York Stock Exchange. He said the company lost money every year for the next decade. A monkey would have outperformed Mr Trump’s company, Mr Buffett said.

In 1995, “if a monkey had thrown a dart at the stock page, the monkey on average would have made 150 per cent,” he said.

Mr Buffett spoke for nearly 30 minutes to a raucous capacity crowd of roughly 3,100 people in a suburban Omaha high school with Ms Clinton sitting at his side.