Trump Admits Audit Has Nothing To Do With Release Of His Tax Returns

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

For months, Donald Trump has held that he won’t release his tax returns until the Internal Revenue Service completes an audit of his finances. On Tuesday, he admitted that he could actually make the returns public at any time.

Asked on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor” if he felt “pressure” to release his tax returns with the news that his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), would release them this week, Trump was defiant.

“When the audit is complete I will release my returns,” the real estate tycoon insisted. “I have no problem with it. It doesn’t matter.”

Every presidential nominee for the past four decades has made their tax returns, and former president Richard Nixon released his while under audit.

As O’Reilly pointed out, “People say you can do it while being audited.”

“Nobody would recommend that,” Trump replied, pivoting to Hillary Clinton’s email use as secretary of state. “In the meantime, she has 33,000 emails that she deleted. When is she going to release her emails? She probably knows how to find it. Let her release her emails and I will release my tax returns immediately.”

The GOP nominee here acknowledged that the audit itself is not preventing him from making the returns public. Instead, he implied that there is no political advantage to doing so.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: