I’ll make this short and sweet. Well, not sweet I guess but you know what I mean. I freely admit that with all that’s gone on in this election, neither before or after President Biden withdrew and VP Kamala Harris stepped up to become the Democratic nominee almost no one, from news outlets to political blogs like this one have talked about Trump’s tax returns!
Think about it. I seem to recall back in April a handful of articles about the Biden’s releasing theirs, and of course we hear regularly about HUNTER Biden’s taxes. From House Committees, from news outlets obsessed with making sure anything Biden has some form of scandal attached to it even if their only means is to drag the President’s son through the mud. Even though Hunter Biden has never, unlike say Trump’s evil spawn from his first marriage worked for his dad or in the WH. However we know seemingly everything there is to know about Hunter’s taxes. (Even though the judge presiding at his trial next month ruled the jury won’t be allowed to know Hunter settled up matters with the IRS years ago including paying his fines)
Yet for all the talk about the taxes of the son of a President who is no longer running for re-election until seeing this article from MSNBC I haven’t seen any major outlet raise the question this year! Are there plenty of other more pressing questions and issues? Sure. Then again, given how hard Trump has fought to keep those tax returns hidden it’s fair to suggest there’s information (maybe a LOT) in them that would cripple his chances of winning this fall. Not to mention just how corrupt he (and his administration) as been and how much more so it would be if he gets a second (and forever) term.
The MSNBC article asks in the headline whether right about now it’s time for Trump to release his taxes. Say what? It should have happened long ago. Consider this:
Indeed, the partisan asymmetry matters. On July 21, President Joe Biden announced that he would end his re-election campaign, and one week later, Vice President Kamala Harris released her tax returns from the previous 20 years.
Trump could approach transparency the same way. On several occasions, he’s said he would. So where are the documents? Why would he insist on secrecy for his tax returns from the last few years?
The linked article is a short read and directly addresses custom going back fifty years of Presidential candidates releasing their taxes. EXCEPT for Trump. It goes into some of the b.s. he’s slung, but doesn’t go back far enough. So I will:
- Years before Trump became a candidate he raked Mitt Romney over the coals for reluctance to release HIS taxes. Trump said if HE ever ran HE would do so. HE LIED!
- Once he did fart and shart his way down his fake gold Trump Tower escalator when the question of releasing his taxes was asked he said of course he would. HE LIED!
- When journalists pressed him on the issue over the years (before finally giving up it seems) Trump claimed legally he couldn’t do so because he was under IRS audit. HE LIED!
I could do more of this but you see the theme. Trump has fought like hell to keep anyone from seeing his true financial situation, and while it wouldn’t be the complete picture his tax returns, not just the 1040 but the various Schedules that deal with all manner of things (including business expenses – and remember the Trump Org and all the subsidiaries are a Trump owned family business) would provide most of the picture. Not to mention fodder for potential new tax fraud charges. STATE tax fraud charges although in far too many cases the statue of limitations will have expired.
Again, I’m kicking my own butt for having completely forgotten about this. Not anymore and I sure hope there are enough journalists willing to piss off the folks in the Executive Suites will not only NOT leave this alone but push it. If enough Democrats including Harris bring it up Trump will in fact get asked about it. Over and over. He’s already knocked off his game. Harris, Walz and others have clearly shown they are getting under Trump’ skin. His entire self-image, his “brand” is based on the notion he’s a self-made from scratch, fabulously successful and wealthy business tycoon.
Having this question of “Why won’t you release your taxes?” will get his blood boiling. Twisting the knife with variations on the theme “Are you AFRAID releasing your taxes will show you aren’t as successful and rich as you claim?” cause the ketchup bottles to run for safety. Especially if someone has the backbone to, when Trump trots out the “under audit” excuse tell him he’s wrong. That that’s not what the law says and in fact prior Presidents have released tax returns under audit. A “Are you lying or are your most trusted financial advisors like Alan Weisselberg lying to you? will cause Trump to completely lose it.
I know one person who does in fact have that kind of steel spine. Better still, that person knows a thing or two about fraud, both personal and corporate and prosecuting it. And winning convictions. In a debate on live TV Kamala Harris can tie Trump up in knots on this and I sure hope if those asking the candidates questions don’t raise the issue she will find a way to do so herself. When she was a Senator sitting on the Judiciary Committee Harris flustered actual smart, experienced people including SCOTUS nominees. Just imagine how easily Harris can slice and dice him into itty-bitty Trumpy pieces!
The question for the moment is whether this MSNBC article is a one-shot deal or if other outlets will pick up on it. That’s where we can do our part. Contact our Democratic elected officials and have them starting raising the question – to journalists! If enough of them keep talking about it news outlets won’t have much choice but to cover it. Then we get to watch another epic Trump meltdown.
Thanks marine for continuing to fire away from the trenches! IF he shows and she pins him down, I expect the same confusion we got from bullfrog Barr over the word ‘suggest’. This time it will be over the word ‘release’. Goddamn the 76+ million mutherfuckering traitors in this country who continue to support this POS fascist traitor. Everytime I see an asshole riding around with a flag and a Trump sticker, I feel like Tom Coughlin…aka…Billy Jack…who said: “I just want to GO BESERK!” Hey assholes: meet pavement when I finally allow my freak flag to fly and RAM ur ass, and watch you roll off that old man Honda motorcycle! What they gonna do? Throw me in jail? Been there done that. Last time was unjustified as the parole board admitted. This time I’ll earn it. As the main character in the movie Nobody said to the thugs on the bus: “I hope you enjoy hospital food. I’m going to mess you up!” Where did you assholes get the phucking idea you are safe? Really? Ask the 1500 sitting in jail for January 6th! This is a phucking war that you phuckers started. At least the nazis in 1941-1945 knew they should be carrying guns. Another movie reference: The Unforgiven. When Clint Eastwood went to the saloon and saw his friend dead with a sign on him outside the saloon, he went inside against all odds. When he asked: “who owns this establishment?” When the pimp/saloon keeper said:”I do”, he blew his ass away. When the corrupt sheriff called him a mangy dog for killing an unarmed man…Clint replied: “if he’s gonna decorate his saloon with my friend, he should have armed himself.” You nazis deserve no better, as our 400,000 dead heros know all too well. If Trump pulls off another coup…the ‘nice’ people may wake up to the fact this is a fight to the death. VOTE! Do it to keep your illusions and comfort intact. Taxes? Small potatoes, but thanks for reminding us how deep the rot is in this culture of hypocrisy, lies, and forgetfulness.
I’ve routinely brought up Trump’s lack of disclosure about his taxes and mentioned, on many occasions, his *excuse* that he couldn’t release them while he was being audited which NONE of the media would call out his lie. The person being audited is FREE to release any and all tax information they want to; it’s the IRS (i.e., the “government”) which is PROHIBITED BY LAW from releasing any individual’s or corporation’s tax information.
But, when it comes to Trump, if it’s a day ending in “-y” and he’s speaking, you can rest assured a lie will emanate from that make-up-coated face. (There are professional drag queens who use less make-up for their shows. If Trump participated on “Drag Race” and won a year’s supply of cosmetics by Anastasia of Beverly Hills–one of the regular prizes Ru awards–the company would go out of business in about 7 or 8 months because Trump would go through the year’s worth that quickly.)
The law does actually provide one exception where the IRS can, and in fact the relevant statute uses the world “shall” an individual’s tax returns. Upon request of the Congress as in certain Committee investigations. THEY cannot publicly release the information willy-nilly either but there are triggers that during the course of an investigation can caused returns to be made public. The thing is, Trump ordered his Treasury Secretary to refuse to comply with the law! It took far to long for the whole matter to get to court and even longer before in the end the records were turned over. Alas, by the time they were Democrats didn’t have a chance to actually do anything. And once the GOP got control of Congress those records probably went into the shredders and from there into burn bags for the incinerator down in the basement!
The mystery is: why Joseph do so many accept his obvious and proven lies over and over?
Because Scott, sometimes you just can’t fix stupid.
Two key words in your piece Dennis say it all: executive suites. The people occupying those suites don’t like paying taxes and want to pay a lot less of them-ditto the shareholders. Depending on how much editorial control they can exert, and I’m pretty sure it is quite a bit, I doubt this will become much of an issue in the next months. Sure, there are media sources that aren’t subject to oligarch oversight, but they’re not particularly mainstream. D.K., P.Z., and the like will make much of this but they’re writing to and for the folks who believe in those old-fashioned values of “paying your fair share”-you know, sh*t like that.
It will become an issue if enough people raise it enough times.