Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump says he hopes to release his tax returns before the fall election, but also said that people don’t learn very much from a tax return.
“Hopefully, before the election, I’ll release,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on Fox News. “And I’d like to release. By the way, you learn very little from a tax return.”
“You know, I’ve released my financials, and my financials show tremendous numbers — very little debt, all of that. You don’t learn very much from a tax return,” he said.
Mr. Trump has cited an ongoing audit as the reason for not releasing his returns and has said he would release them once the audit is completed.
“At the right time, I’ll release them,” he said. “I hope to release them. I’d like to release them. But when I’m under audit I can’t do that.”
“No lawyer would say release it when you’re under audit,” Mr. Trump said. “And these are very simple audits. It should go quickly.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who faced pressure himself to release his tax information during the 2012 campaign, slammed Mr. Trump over the issue in a Facebook post Wednesday.
Mr. Romney said it is “disqualifying” for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, “especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service.”
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton also questioned Mr. Trump on the issue at a rally Wednesday.
“When you run for president, especially when you become the nominee, that is kind of expected,” Mrs. Clinton said. “My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns. We got eight years on our website right now. So you got to ask yourself, why doesn’t he want to release them?”
Sen. Bernard Sanders, Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 Democratic rival, has pressured Mrs. Clinton to release transcripts from paid speeches she’s given to Wall Street firms, but Mrs. Clinton has said she won’t release them until presidential candidates in both parties do the same.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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