Donald Trump has told us for several months that he can’t release his tax returns because he’s being audited by the IRS. Well, apparently the Trump children know that’s baloney. After all, for the third time in as many months, one of the Donald’s kids has told us the truth about why their dad isn’t willing to do what every presidential candidate has done for four decades. Apparently the Donald just doesn’t want the scrutiny.
You may recall that back in September, Donald Trump, Jr. claimed that if his dad released his returns, it would “distract from (his father’s) main message.” Well, his younger brother, Eric, must have gotten the same memo. On Monday morning, Eric called into the morning show at WGAN in Portland, Maine to discuss the recent leak of a portion of his dad’s tax return. Listen to a clip here.
Eric didn’t seem to understand what all the fuss was about. After all, this was “21 years ago.” He thought the media’s “meltdown” was evidence that people had “lost their minds.” To his mind, it was “very, very sad” that everyone was focused on his father’s tax returns rather than ask how the Clintons managed to become millionaires after being “flat broke” when they left the White House in 2001.
Eric parroted the standard Trump campaign line on his returns–no lawyer worth his salt would allow his client to release his returns when he’s being audited. Co-host Ken Altshuler, a practicing lawyer, was having none of it. He told Eric that the IRS allows you to release your returns even when you’re under audit. “You know that has nothing to do with it,” Altshuler said.
Eric tried to dig out of that hole–and in the process, dug a new one. He claimed that even if his dad wasn’t being audited, releasing his returns simply would bring more trouble than it was worth.
“I respectfully disagree. No lawyer in the world wants to. And by the way, even if you did, they would go through every single page for the last 400 years and they would make issue of everything. Honestly, you almost couldn’t at this point.”
Eric then recalled how Mitt Romney’s opponents “crucified” and “just killed him” when he released his returns. Apparently Eric forgot that his own dad was among those clamoring for Mittens to release his returns.
According to Talking Points Memo, Eric parroted a similar line in August. He claimed that if his dad released his returns, all it would do was make people “who know nothing about taxes” nitpick those returns and “come up with assumptions.”
So that’s what it is, isn’t it? If you believe the Trump children, their dad is trying to gaslight the American people once again. He portrays himself as the candidate of the Joe Sixpacks of the world, a guy who stands up for workers. Yet he’s too scared to open his kimono and release his returns because he’s afraid of being subjected to–horrors!–actual scrutiny? Sounds like it to me.
The GOP has spent the entire campaign attacking Hillary for not being transparent. And yet, their own standardbearer’s son openly admits that his dad is too gutless to submit to actual vetting. It begs the obvious question–if Trump didn’t want to undergo the usual vetting that all candidates have to undergo, why did he even run in the first place?
You may recall that if Trump becomes president, the Trump children will run his vast real estate empire via a blind trust that really won’t be blind at all. Judging by what we heard here, it sounds like they will run his company the same way their dad ran it–through lying and dissembling.
