When President Donald Trump took the oath of office, his administration hit the reset button on the Whitehouse.gov website, replacing former president Barack Obama’s policy goals with new priorities.
But one page remains: the petition feature that allows the president’s administration to respond to issues raised directly by the people.
And the people, apparently, want to see Trump’s tax returns.
One petition asks the administration to “immediately release Donald Trump’s full tax returns” and says it wants Trump to not be in conflict with the emoluments clause of the Constitution.
Less than a day after the petition was started, it eclipsed the 100,000-signature mark – enough to elicit an official response.
But Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Trump, issued a response on national television Sunday morning.
“The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns,” she told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “We litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care, they voted for him. And let me make this very clear, most Americans are very concerned with what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office, not what his look like.”
There were a handful of petitions this weekend. Another petition on the site is also about Trump’s money, demanding he “divest or put in a blind trust all of the President’s business and financial assets.” One asked Trump to resign. Another sought the repeal of the National Firearms Act, removing restrictions on gun ownership.
Oh, and some people want farmers to be able to grow hemp.
The most popular petition, about the tax returns, says that “unprecedented economic conflicts of this administration need to be visible to the American people.”
It seeks documentation about “foreign influences and financial interests which may put Donald Trump in conflict with the emoluments clause of the Constitution.”
The clause prohibits a president from accepting a gift or a benefit from a foreign leader. It was drafted by the Founding Fathers to prevent the leaders of the fledgling United States from being under the financial thumb of a foreign country like France or England.
But Trump’s critics say the billionaire businessman was violating the Constitution the moment he swore an oath to protect and defend it.
Ron Fein, the legal director at Free Speech for People, told The Washington Post’s Matea Gold that there are several examples of Trump violating the emoluments clause, including rent paid by the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China for its space in Trump Tower in New York and spending by foreign diplomats at the Trump properties, including his hotel in Washington, a few blocks from his new home.
Trump has claimed he would donate profits from foreign business clients to the U.S. Treasury, although he hasn’t said exactly how he’d track, collect and disburse such payments, according to Gold.
And even if he’s found to be in violation of the emoluments clause, it is unclear whether a violation of it qualifies as “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors” that could lead to Trump’s impeachment.
Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns became a heated issue on the campaign trail.
On Jan. 11, during Trump’s first official news conference since winning the election, he continued to resist suggestions to release the returns.
“The only ones that care about my tax returns are the reporters,” Trump said. “You learn very little from a tax return.”
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
4 Responses
Is there any reason that Trump won’t release his tax returns other than that they will show conflicts of interest? He did promise to do so during the campaign.
#1 he said after the audit
Obama took 3 years to release his birth certificate, why should Trump be any different with his tax returns?
He just didn’t say how long after the audit!