Trump Accused The Tax March Of Being A Paid Protest

Thousands of citizens across the country united on Tax Day to march through the streets from coast to coast and send the president a message about his still-unreleased tax returns. However, that message was derisively ignored, as evidenced by a tweet from the president's official Twitter account Sunday morning. Donald Trump accused the Tax March of being a paid protest, which is really just his latest sign of disrespect toward the American people.

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!" Trump tweeted Sunday morning, presumably talking about the Tax Marches that occurred in over 150 cities on Saturday. Trump has frequently accused protests directed toward him of being insincerely organized, even though thousands of protesters anticipated this criticism and preemptively made signs for the march stating that they were not paid to be there.

Trump also tweeted, "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?" which requires some fact-checking. First, Republicans generally have an advantage in the Electoral College — although highly populous, liberal states like New York and California bring in lots of votes, the sheer quantity of smaller, conservative states tips the balance in favor of Republicans.

Second, Trump seems to be implying that the only reason people would protest is that they are trying to influence an election. The insinuation that people only care about politics during an election seems extremely insulting toward the citizens who took the time out of their lives to express their desire for transparency in the federal government. Trump's distrust and dismissal of his own constituents' concerns shows how little he regards the representative part of governing.

Ultimately, Trump's protestations seem to be more of a self-indictment any anything else. There are several theories attempting to explain Trump's obstinacy about refusing to release his tax returns, but ultimately it still remains a mystery. Some speculate that Trump isn't really as wealthy as he makes it seem, which is a pretty plausible explanation given he can change the value of his holdings based on however he feels.

Another theory is that he's hiding possible errors or loopholes, and any bombshells in his personal taxes could end his presidency. Trump has never given a legitimate reason for why he can't release his returns, so his staunch and longstanding refusal to release the information naturally makes people assume the worst.

Since nothing has worked in over a year, Trump will likely never be persuaded to release his returns. The American people will only have conjecture and worries unless they're leaked, and one of the best possible chances to make that happen could come soon. The Internal Revenue Service automatically audits presidents and vice presidents every year, and according to a former IRS employee, many of the former presidents' returns have disappeared over the years. Undoubtedly, a full copy of Trump's returns would be the story of the century, so there's a real chance they could leak in the next few months.