Donald Trump’s history of unfortunate money-making schemes took an unsettling turn in March when the former president started peddling the “God Bless the U.S.A. Bible,” offering customers an opportunity to get “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump” for just $59.99.
It was a predictably successful venture: The cash-strapped Republican made $300,000 on the branded Bibles. We know this because of a personal financial disclosure form Team Trump released nearly two weeks ago. A CNN report on the documents added:
Trump has consistently bucked the tradition among major party candidates of releasing his tax returns to the public, and the financial disclosure reports offer an incomplete picture because filers are only required to disclose income and assets in broad ranges.
All of which left us with a lingering question that regularly goes unasked: Shouldn’t Trump release his latest tax returns right about now?
To be sure, I’m mindful of the larger circumstances. In May 2014 — more than a full decade ago — Trump promised to release his tax returns if he became a candidate. “If I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns, absolutely,” the Republican said the year before his ride down the golden escalator. “And I would love to do that.”
In the years that followed, Trump ignored the modern bipartisan tradition, kept his tax returns hidden, broke a variety of promises related to transparency, and fought tooth and nail to keep the information from the public. Eventually, in the wake of leaks and court rulings, Americans learned details that were unflattering to the former president.
But now that he’s running yet again, and Trump is the GOP’s nominee for the third consecutive cycle, shouldn’t the question return to the fore? Shouldn’t the Republican candidate at least face some questions about whether he’ll release his tax returns — even if we know the answer will be no? Often, questions we know the answers to go unasked, but that doesn’t mean the questions themselves lack merit. To simply not ask Trump about his recent tax returns — putting him to peddle yet another round of dubious claims about IRS audits that are probably imaginary — is to go easy on a major-party nominee for no reason. 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 has said he would. So where are the documents? Why would he insist on secrecy for his tax returns from the last few years?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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