Trump’s Tax Disclosure: Never Mind!

Presidential candidate Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that he would release his tax documents. He said it well before he threw his hat in the GOP ring, back in 2014. As the Republican candidate he came up with a lame excuse for avoiding the tax disclosures made by White House hopefuls since 1970: He said he couldn’t do it since he was under audit, a specious argument, as himself finally admitted. He even claimed he would release his tax forms after the election, if the audit took that long.

Sunday morning, on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Trump spokescreature Kellyanne Conway admitted that it’s not going to happen, since voters already elected him without any tax facts. She say’s voters don’t care, but 74% of Americans — including half of Trump’s supporters — want him to release his tax forms.

Since inauguration Day, over 200,000 citizens have signed a We the People petition on the White House website asking the President to “immediately release Donald Trump’s full tax returns, with all information needed to verify emoluments clause compliance.” 100,000 signatures is enough to require an official response. It is doubtful that Ms. Conway’s raised middle finger meets that requirement.

What is Mr. Trump hiding? Perhaps:

— He hasn’t paid any taxes, as his previous state tax releases indicate

— He’s not as rich as he claims

— He hasn’t given as much to charity as he claims

— He has had previously undisclosed foreign business dealings, perhaps with Russia

Wikileaks, Trump’s best bud during the campaign, says it will release the new president’s tax returns for him if they can be obtained. “Trump’s breach of promise over the release of his tax returns is even more gratuitous than Clinton concealing her Goldman Sachs transcripts,” tweeted the organization.

UPDATES:

“Conway Backtracks On Trump’s Tax Returns, Saying He’s Still Under Audit,” Matt Shuham, TPM Livewire

“Mnuchin: Trump has ‘no intention’ of releasing tax returns,” Julie Bykowicz and Jill Colvin, Associated Press

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Trump Paid Nothing in Taxes

“The last time information from Donald Trump’s income-tax returns was made public, the bottom line was striking: He had paid the federal government $0 in income taxes.

The disclosure, in a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators, revealed that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s taken advantage of a tax-code provision popular with developers that allowed him to report negative income.

Today, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump regularly denounces corporate executives for using loopholes and ‘false deductions’ to ‘get away with murder’ when it comes to avoiding taxes.

‘They make a fortune. They pay no tax,’ Trump said last year on CBS. ‘It’s ridiculous, okay?'”

— “Trump once revealed his income tax returns. They showed he didn’t pay a cent.” Drew Harwell, Washington Post

More:

“Donald Trump, the welfare king,” Dana Milbank, Washington Post

“Donald Trump signed off deal designed to deprive US of tens of millions of dollars in tax,” Ruth Sherlock, Edward Malnick, and Claire Newell, The Telegraph

See Kim Warp’s New Yorker take here.

Related:

“Trump’s Chip-Shot Charity,” NotionsCapital

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President Hillary Will Release the Files — the X-Files

“When Jimmy Kimmel asked Hillary Clinton in a late-night TV interview about U.F.O.s, she quickly corrected his terminology.

‘You know, there’s a new name,’ Mrs. Clinton said in the March appearance. ‘It’s unexplained aerial phenomenon,’ she said. ‘U.A.P. That’s the latest nomenclature.’

Known for her grasp of policy, Mrs. Clinton has spoken at length in her presidential campaign on topics as diverse as Alzheimer’s research and military tensions in the South China Sea. But it is her unusual knowledge about extraterrestrials that has struck a small but committed cohort of voters.

Mrs. Clinton has vowed that barring any threats to national security, she would open up government files on the subject, a shift from President Obama, who typically dismisses the topic as a joke. Her position has elated U.F.O. enthusiasts, who have declared Mrs. Clinton the first ‘E.T. candidate.’”

–“Hillary Clinton Gives U.F.O. Buffs Hope She Will Open the X-Files,” Amy Chozick, New York Times

“Hillary Clinton’s UFO investigation plans unlikely to achieve liftoff, experts say,” Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian

“What Hillary Clinton Says About Aliens Is Totally Misguided,” Nadia Drake, National Geographic Phenomena

Hillary will Release All Secret Files — on UFOs

Clinton 2016 Campaign Chairman John Podesta told a Las Vegas interviewer that he has urged Hillary Clinton to declassify all government UFO files if elected, and the candidate is considering it. In fact, back in January Secretary Clinton herself told a New Hampshire reporter that Mr. Podesta “has made me personally pledge we are going to get the information out. One way or another. Maybe we could have, like, a task force to go to Area 51.” Extraterrestrials: we want them accounted for.

Why do otherwise serious politicos care about UFO sightings? The most-viewed declassified FBI document is the “Hottel Memo” about flying saucers.

President Romney Demands Financial Disclosure

The Transition Team website for President-Elect Willard Mitt Romney had a sneak preview yesterday, and Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard saved a few screenshots before it went dark again. Looking for a job in the Romney Administration? “Government service is not for everyone,” warns the site, which also cautions:

“The financial holdings and sources of income for most applicants under serious consideration must be disclosed for review for possible conflicts of interest, and any conflicts must be remedied by divestiture, creation of special trusts, etc.”

This from a man who refused to release his own tax information.

Like his economic policies (tax cuts for the rich, corporate deregulation), Mr. Romney appears to have cribbed this from George W. Bush. The Bush transition site language is identical.

This is sad news for Rafalca Romney, a galloping favorite for Cayman Islands Ambassador. Told to turn over tax returns, Rafalca replied “Whoa!”

It’s Like Full Disclosure, Only … Secret

The National Institutes of Health has released bold new ethics rules. All NIH grantees, recipients of tens of billions of dollars in public research funds, must reveal their financial ties to big medical and drug corporations to administrators of their institutions, who will then keep the information to themselves.

“The National Institutes of Health New Ethics Rules: A Swing and a Miss,” Paul Thacker and Ned Feder, Project On Government Oversight

“Worst Excuse Ever,” Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress

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Docs and Disclosure

Drug giant Pfizer paid $20 million in consulting and speaking fees to 4,500 medical professionals in the last six months of 2009.  The corporation, America’s biggest drug company, also paid $15.3 million to U.S. university medical centers for clinical trials of drug products. Corporate disclosure of payments to the people who decide which drugs to recommend is a good thing. right?

Not necessarily, says behavioral economist Dan Ariely. The court-mandated disclosures are designed to reduce conflicts of interest,  but may have the opposite effect: