Now that tax season is over – but of course, it’s
never over – the only tax issue left
is the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns. But since the election is over,
as the president is quick to remind, his tax returns are a non-issue. Except to
the IRS, which seems to have The Donald under
perpetual audit; it’s an issue to most Americans, too, according to a recent
poll. Of course, most American voters favored Hillary Clinton but the Electoral
College made that fact a non-issue too.
A Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll released earlier this
month found 53 percent of voters surveyed think Trump should be forced to
release his tax returns. A majority of one, Donald Trump, thinks otherwise.
However, those voters who disagree with the president may
soon get their wish. Kind of. Here in California. If Trump’s name ever again
appears on the presidential ballot.
California is one of 24 states to have introduced
bills (in California it’s Senate Bill 149) requiring Trump — and all other
future presidential candidates — to release their tax returns in order to be listed
on the state's ballots.
Candidate Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, said
repeatedly he would release his returns. He chided other politicians for their
lack of transparency. At one point, as point-man for birthers, he declared if
President Obama released his birth certificate he would release his tax
returns.
Obama did and Trump didn’t. It’s sort of a pattern
with him.
As time went on, Trump changed his tax return line to
I will release them after the audit is complete. Of course, there is no IRS
rule against releasing returns mid-audit. Mitt Romney, Trump’s immediate
predecessor as the Republican standard bearer, released his returns while under
audit. In fact, every major presidential candidate, both Republican and
Democrat, since Jimmy Carter has released his or her returns. Every president
since Carter, both Republican and Democrat, has released his tax return every
year he was in office.
Why is this an issue with voters? Well, there’s the
nosey factor. People like to know about how much money other people earn, what
they own and what they’re worth. Most of us don’t like to give out that
information. Most of us are more likely to share information about our sex
lives than our financial lives (certainly that’s the case with Donald Trump).
But personal financial transparency goes well beyond
voyeurism when it comes to the presidency. As Richard Nixon once said about
another issue, “People have got to know whether or not their President is a
crook.”
Last weekend, an estimated 100,000 people took to the
streets across some 200 cities to demand that Trump release his tax returns.
Since being elected he’s made it clear he’s not releasing anything, saying only
reporters are interested. But in a tweet-storm covering a number of subject
last weekend, Trump dismissed the protestors in two tweets:
“Someone
should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The
election is over!” and
“I
did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won
the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?”
That prompted Evan McMullin, former
independent presidential candidate and CIA operative, to ask via a tweet: “For
what purpose would a president attack Americans demanding transparency of those
who lead them?”
If only more Americans had asked that question before
marking their presidential ballots.
Trump always finds a way to make it about him. From
bragging about the “most beautiful” chocolate cake he was enjoying when he told
Chinese President Xi Jinping the U.S. at that moment had let fly 59 cruise missiles
into Syria, to standing on the White House balcony on Monday and telling a
crowd of children gathered for the annual Easter egg roll, “We will be stronger
and bigger as a nation than ever before,” he
seems genetically predisposed to self-aggrandization (his other genetically
predisposition is being tone deaf).
But the tax return issue is bigger than Trump’s
fragile ego or his flip-flop promises. It’s about Americans’ need to know
whether their president is a crook. The issue looms large given the ongoing FBI
investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, the fact that the Trump
organization has business links across the globe, and that since becoming
president he and his family have inventively scored
profitable business deals (to name but two such deals: trademark protection
sought for a decade and suddenly granted by China a month after Trump took
office; and first daughter and unpaid government employee Ivanka’s Mar-a-Lago dinner
with the Chinese president shortly after which a provisional approval was
granted for three new trademarks giving her company monopoly rights to sell
Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world's second-largest
economy. Of course, she’s no longer running her company. Wink. Wink.).
Then came the Democrats, smelling blood in the water
and vowing non-cooperation with any GOP tax reform effort absent the release of
Trump’s returns. They want to know how he and his kin might profit from any tax
proposal. Politics? Of course. But also, a reasonable thing to wonder.
A tax return may not provide all evidence, but a tax
return is a road map. By withholding this president creates an atmosphere of
disbelief, as in what’s he hiding?
Apparently, more and more Americans are growing
suspicious about Trump’s various pronouncements (think: “armada” headed toward
North Korea). A Gallup poll out Monday, the Washington Post reported, “strongly
suggests that an increasing number of Americans just don’t believe Trump’s spin
about his presidency anymore. It finds that only 45 percent of Americans think
Trump keeps his promises, down from 62 percent in February, an astonishing
slide of 17 points.” Trump’s believability fell across every gender, age and
political group, down 9 points among conservatives and 11 points among
Republicans, Gallup reported.
Nixon discovered he couldn’t remain in office with a growing
majority of American thinking he was a liar. He was in his second term. Trump
is only about 100 days into his first term and the number of Trump doubters is
growing.
Trump says only the press and paid protestors want to get
at his returns. So far, he hasn’t said much about the 24 states where must-see
legislation is pending. It will be interesting to see what kind of tweet-storm he
unleashes against those two dozen states when he can no longer ignore them.
More interesting still would be his behavior if his own party’s disgust reaches
critical mass and party leaders demand the returns.
You know, a guy can dream.
Contact Eric Grunder, former opinion page editor of
The Record, at elgrunder@msn.com. Follow him at
oncruisecontrolafter65.blogspot.com and on Twitter @elgrunder.
#trump #taxreturns #evasion #president #WhiteHouse
