We heard two months ago that Donald Trump would likely force any potential running mates to turn over their tax returns, despite the fact that Trump’s steadfastly refused to do so himself.
Now, we have confirmation of Trump’s hypocrisy. The attorney running Trump’s VP vetting operations has made tax-record disclosure a prerequisite for consideration. According to the Washington Post:
The contenders under the most serious consideration, such as [Newt] Gingrich and [Chris] Christie, have been asked by attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. to answer more than 100 questions and to provide reams of personal and professional files that include tax records and any articles or books they have published.
Newt Gingrich is experienced when it comes to tax return transparency — he was the first GOP presidential candidate to make his returns public back in 2012.
But, then again, every GOP presidential nominee since 1976 has released their tax returns, so Trump’s lack of transparency is essentially without precedent in the last 40 years.
So why won’t Trump release his returns?
We don’t know for sure, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that Trump paid zero in taxes for at least five years since the late 1970s (see: 1978 &1979; 1984; 1991 & 1993).
Read more at TrumpReleaseYourReturns.com
Published: Jul 1, 2016