On Monday, Trump said he had paid “millions” in taxes but was entitled to depreciation and tax credits. He also said he was under-leveraged, having more assets than debt.

The Times said that Trump reduced his tax bill via a US$72.9 million tax refund that is the subject of an Internal Revenue Service audit. He also reportedly took tax deductions on residences, aircraft and US$70,000 in hairstyling for television appearances.

Meanwhile, his golf courses report losing large amounts of money, and hundreds of millions of dollars in loans he personally guaranteed will soon be due for repayment, according to The New York Times.

On Monday, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jnr accused the newspaper of publishing a “selective picture” of his father’s taxes, but did not deny the figures exposed in the report, instead complaining that other tax payments had been left out.

“My father’s paid tens of millions of taxes,” Trump Jnr told Fox, adding that there were years “where you get historical tax credits”. He said the report did not include payroll, real estate and property taxes.

“It doesn’t include so many of the things that he’s been paying taxes on forever as he’s also putting thousands and thousands of people to work on an annual basis,” Trump Jnr asserted. “People don’t understand what goes into a business.”

US election debates: Biden compares Trump to Nazi Goebbels before first clash

Democrats jumped on the allegations, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying it showed “Trump’s disdain for America’s working families”, and party colleague Chuck Schumer calling for everyone “who paid more in federal income tax” to raise their hand.

Massachusetts representative Richard Neal, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee who has tried unsuccessfully to obtain Trump’s tax records, said the Times report makes it even more essential for his committee to get the documents.

“It appears that the President has gamed the tax code to his advantage and used legal fights to delay or avoid paying what he owes,” Neal said in a statement on his Facebook page.

“Now, Donald Trump is the boss of the agency he considers an adversary. It is essential that the IRS’s presidential audit programme remain free of interference.”

Biden’s campaign team posted a tweet that simply stated how much federal income tax had been paid by teachers (US$7,239), firefighters (US$5,283) and nurses (US$10,216) – all groups that have been hit hard by the pandemic or the West Coast wildfires, two major topics ahead of the debate.

At Tuesday’s election debate, millions of Americans will watch as the two antagonists – who depict each other as existential threats to the country – step into the ring live on television after months of shadowboxing.

Trump taunted Biden on Sunday with a fresh salvo on his mental acuity.

“I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night,” he tweeted, saying he would take one also.

Trump’s talk of rejecting US election result evokes chaos scenarios

“His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???”

When asked by reporters about the demand, Biden laughed before declining to comment.

Both men are prone to blunders and gaffes when speaking – but the 74-year-old Trump has repeatedly depicted the 77-year-old Biden as senile.

On Saturday, Biden said he expects “personal attacks and lies” from the president, likening Trump to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

The former vice-president has until recently stayed close to his Delaware home due the pandemic – while Trump has flouted his own government’s social distancing guidelines, holding jam-packed rallies with few masks in sight.

Trump sees his nomination of Barrett – potentially tilting the court to the right for years – as a fundamental boost to his troubled campaign.

But Biden accused Trump of rushing Barrett’s nomination to launch a new assault on health care and urged the Senate to delay the confirmation until after the election.

Barring a huge surprise, Republican senators, who have 53 out of 100 votes in the upper house of Congress, are expected to confirm Barrett.

Trump went golfing 25 times as coronavirus killed over 200,000 Americans

The TV debate could be a wild card, with Trump needing to break through the 200,000 US coronavirus deaths, the long-lasting economic fallout and fatigue at the constant upheaval roiling his administration.

Unlike the fawning treatment he enjoys during his weekly call-ins to Fox News or the adoring atmosphere at rallies, he’ll find himself facing a determined rival painting him as “toxic” for America.

Meanwhile, front runner Biden mainly needs to keep steady against a man who many call a master provocateur.

Additional reporting by Reuters, DPA