For Trump it's always tax return evasion season

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.

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