Twenty-six years ago, the federal government opened up a four-year investigation, led by Ken Starr, into the finances of then-President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, who had made an investment in a real estate development that went belly-up, resulting in the Clintons taking a loss.

Yesterday’s New York Times bombshell report shows that President Trump has lost literally 500 times more than the Clintons lost, is leveraged by foreign governments, and is using federal payments to buoy his investments.

While each incident involved real estate transactions, there are stark differences between the two.

Clinton Whitewater “Scandal”

• Clintons and two other invested $200,000 in 1978 (current value:  roughly $800,000), which was lost in a bad real estate deal.
• The investigation started as various investigations by a Special Counsel, Robert B. Fiske, to look into allegations that the Clintons, particularly then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, pressured a local savings and loan to loan money to a firm working on Whitewater.
• Fiske was replaced by Kenneth Starr, who expanded the investigation into various other issues, from the firing of the White House travel office, to the Clintons reviewing FBI records in the private White House residence, to Bill Clinton’s alleged affair with Paula Jones.
• The Clintons complied with requests and subpoenas for financial records.
• Starr found the Clintons did nothing illegal or unethical–including regarding taxes–with regard to the real estate deal.  Clinton was ultimately impeached for lying in a deposition for a grand jury about an affair with an intern.

What we learned about Trump’s finances:

• Through his company, the Trump Organization, Trump has lost more than $400 million in real estate operations over 20 years.
• Trump has more than $400 million in outstanding debt tied to his real estate holdings, all due within the next four years.
• Trump allegedly used business losses to illegally avoid paying income tax for a number of years.
• Trump covered up hush money payments to at least one mistress on his taxes, cataloging them as “legal fees.”
• Trump has overseas real estate deals in nations both friendly and adversarial to the United States.
• Trump has fought turning over his financial records and tax returns to investigators, despite subpoenas being issued.
• A senior White House staffer, who happens to be Trump’s daughter, was likely illegal paid “consulting fees” to avoid tax liabilities.
• Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the special investigation into the Trump campaign, stopped the Mueller investigation from looking into Trump’s financial dealings.