AOC Slams Republicans for $250 Haircut Backlash Compared to Trump's Reported $70K Hairstyling

Julie Douxe/News Pictures/REX/Shutterstock; Samantha Burkardt/Getty President Donald Trump and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pointing out a double standard about her hair upkeep after reports that President Donald Trump previously expensed thousands of dollars in hairstyling costs.

On Sunday, a report from The New York Times analyzed years of Trump's tax information, which he has avoided publicly releasing both before and during his time in office. Among the revelations presented in the coverage, the newspaper said during his time on NBC’s The Apprentice, he wrote-off about $70,000 in hairstyling costs.

Trump, 74, reportedly claimed the hair costs as deductions from his tax bill because they were the price of doing business. (Trump has dismissed the Times' reporting as ″totally fake news.″)

Back in October 2019, a story published by the Washington Times criticized Ocasio-Cortez, 30, for spending nearly $300 for a hair salon visit. At the time, Richard Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, was quoted in the article saying, ″she preaches socialism while living the life of the privileged,″ adding, “... it is a bad look to spend hundreds of dollars to get your hair done to make a video decrying income inequality.″

″Last year Republicans blasted a firehose of hatred + vitriol my way because I treated myself to a $250 cut & lowlights on my birthday,″ Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday night, just after the new report was published. ″Where’s the criticism of their idol spending $70k on hairstyling? Oh, it’s nowhere because they’re spineless, misogynistic hypocrites? Got it."

RELATED: Trump Previously Paid $750 in Federal Income Tax — and Wrote-Off Apprentice Hairstyling: Report

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Trump is the first president in decades not to release his tax records, though he defended himself by citing an ongoing audit by the IRS. (The Times said the underlying information for its reporting “was provided by sources with legal access to it.”)

According to the exposé, the self-proclaimed billionaire paid a total of $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017 thanks to a nearly $10 million tax credit partially connected to a hotel project in Washington, D.C.

Though the Times report did not cover 2018 and 2019 tax filings, reporters analyzed 18 years' worth of tax returns for Trump and his businesses going back to 2000, finding that he paid zero income taxes in 10 of those years. According to the paper, it was “largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.”

A Trump Organization attorney, Alan Garten, told the Times that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate.” But the paper said that the attorney, in Trump’s defense, seemed to be “conflating income taxes with other federal taxes” to argue Trump had, in his words, “paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes” in the last 10 years.

The president also received a $72.9 million tax refund from the IRS starting in 2010, according to the Times, though the veracity of that payout is at the center of an ongoing audit battle whose status is still unclear.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dismisses Ted Yoho's Apology After Encounter On Tuesday

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Ocasio-Cortez also spoke out about Trump's reportedly minimal federal income tax payments, pointing out that she paid thousands when she was working as a bartender.

″In 2016 & ‘17, I paid thousands of dollars a year in taxes *as a bartender.* Trump paid $750. He contributed less to funding our communities than waitresses & undocumented immigrants,″ she wrote on Twitter. ″Donald Trump has never cared for our country more than he cares for himself. A walking scam.″

Trump has been decidedly tight-lipped about the contents of his business dealings, which are anchored around the family's privately held Trump Organization. The Trumps have said that scrutiny about their money amounts to rumor-mongering and organized harassment — ″POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!" as the president put it in a July 9 tweet.

A chorus of critics, however, say that Trump has hidden his finances (including his tax returns) like no other modern president, making it impossible to know what behind-closed-door deals he's made and to whom he may be secretly indebted, including foreign businesses.