Tax Day crowds demand Trump release tax returns
Protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide Saturday to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest. Organizers said the protests, dubbed the Tax March, were held in nearly 150 cities.
Trump is the first major party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his tax returns, saying it was because he was under audit. He later said that voters don’t care.
“We do care. We want to see his taxes,” said Ann Demerlis, among hundreds who marched in Philadelphia from City Hall to an area in front of historic Independence Hall, carrying signs and chanting. “It’s possible that he can now show his taxes, because his current taxes are not being audited,” Demerlis said.
North Carolina demonstrators say Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns makes them wonder what he might be hiding. About 200 people gathered at a Raleigh plaza to protest Trump’s decision as well as his job performance.
Trump, who spent the morning at his Florida golf course, avoided several hundred protesters when his motorcade took a circuitous route back to Mar-aLago, his estate in Palm Beach. Protesters marched across the bridge that divides West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, chanting and hoisting signs. The president is spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago. The White House would not say if he would go to Easter services Sunday.
In Berkeley, Calif., at least 13 people were arrested after violence erupted between groups of Trump supporters and detractors. About 200 people were at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park when several fights broke out. Dozens of police officers in riot gear quickly arrested one man. Others were arrested after several fights.
In Washington, D.C., one of Trump’s sharpest critics in the House spoke to protesters at the Capitol before they set off on a march to the National Mall. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, of California, said there’s nothing to prevent Trump from releasing his tax returns and that “the simple truth is he’s got a lot to hide.”
Earlier, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, called on Trump to “knock off the secrecy” and said people have “a basic right to know whether the president pays his fair share.”
For four decades, presidents and major party nominees, except Gerald Ford, have released some of their tax returns. Trump’s break with precedent has raised questions about possible conflicts of interest.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, has said Trump’s refusal could hinder Republicans’ prospects for a rewrite of the tax code.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Friday posted an online video urging Congress to force Trump to release the returns. Democrats are pushing for a vote on a bill from Rep. Anna Eshoo, of California, that would require the president and all major-party nominees to publicly disclose their previous three years of tax returns with the Office of Government Ethics or the Federal Election Commission.
Republicans also have rebuffed Democrats’ efforts to get the House Ways and Means Committee to act. It has legal authority to obtain confidential tax records and could vote to make them public.