Tax Returns Coming Tonight?

[ApatheticAustrian]

 How is that a "castle of complex lies"? 

at one point they said they would release them, then it was "at a later point", then "the people don't care anyway" and all the time he said, it would be impossible to release audited tax records which was afaik "debunked" several times.

seemingly "the people" really don't care enough but that doesn't mean that trump didn't - like usual - lie with different and contradicting narratives for months.

[Xing]

As I expected, not much to this. I don't think focusing on his tax returns is the way to go. Even many of those who voted for him would concede that he's not a shining beacon of morality. If the goal is to paint him as out of touch, this tactic isn't working. Democrats have to show that his policies aren't helping (and, in fact are hurting) working class Americans, and that their plans actually will help.

[Ronnie]

I think I agree with David Cay Johnston's suggestion that Trump himself mailed these returns.  He likes attracting headlines, and knew the fallout wouldn't hurt him.  It might even allay some of people's concerns about his returns as a whole.

[cinyc]

So then why did he say he would release his tax returns and Romney was "a choke artist" who "lost because he failed to release his tax returns"

I don't recall him saying that about Romney.  In fact, I recall him saying just the opposite - that Romney was a chump for releasing his returns - which Romney actually did.

[ApatheticAustrian]

As I expected, not much to this. I don't think focusing on his tax returns is the way to go. Even many of those who voted for him would concede that he's not a shining beacon of morality. If the goal is to paint him as out of touch, this tactic isn't working. Democrats have to show that his policies aren't helping (and, in fact are hurting) working class Americans, and that their plans actually will help.

ofc, so much is going to happen without much doing besides pointing out the obvious, when trump finally shows how 1) unable he is to do stuff for his base and 2) how much of the stuff he wants is in all reality hurting his own base.

i think it would still be a good thing if there would finally be hard proof, that the people who criticized trump for his lack of ethics and his close connections to foreign players were..in fact...right, even if this argument didn't swing many votes.

[ApatheticAustrian]

So then why did he say he would release his tax returns and Romney was "a choke artist" who "lost because he failed to release his tax returns"

I don't recall him saying that about Romney.  In fact, I recall him saying just the opposite - that Romney was a chump for releasing his returns - which Romney actually did.

like with all things trump, he OFC said both things at different times, whenever they seemed to be in his self-interest.

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http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2012/01/19/trump-gop-stop-playing-president-obamas-hands/

[Matty]

Maddow getting heavily criticized right now. Now, all people are going to talk about is how rump paid higher rate than Obama, MSNBC, bernie, and romney.

[ApatheticAustrian]

Maddow getting heavily criticized right now. Now, all people are going to talk about is how rump paid higher rate than Obama, MSNBC, bernie, and romney.

i think you are over-estimating the post-election influence of this topic a lot, especially when published on MSNBC...arguably cause other gigs weren't interested anymore, i guess.

red meat for blue voters, imho.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Warning: Totally useless, personal, and irrelevant contribution related to Trump/Maddow ahead :

That house they mentioned in Palm Beach (the one sold to the Russian oligarch) is actually in Boynton, my hometown. Well, technically, it's in Ocean Ridge, which is the small village on the island across the river from me. If I go into my backyard and turn my head at a hard angle over the fence and look up the side canal, I can actually Alexander Haig's former mansion. But anywho, Ocean Ridge, while legally it's own town, is basically the rich and fancy neighborhood of otherwise suburban/somewhat exurban Boynton.

Maddow showed the picture of the house, and said it was in Palm Beach. The picture she aired was of a house in Ocean Ridge-it is the biggest house in Boynton/Ocean Ridge that I know of, and all of my visiting relatives comment on it when they see it enroute to the beach. It was actually rumored at one point to be a possible vacation home for Oprah, which created a huge amount of buzz in our not entirely so sleepy average-sized city.

No idea if it was the actual house or if she just aired the wrong photo, but either way, I found it interesting. If true, then the President of the United States literally owned a house about a mile and a half away from my childhood home. Who'd have thunk it. Then again, he had Mar-a-Lago for a decade by the time I came around and I'm only about a twenty-thirty minute drive away (traffic included).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Maddow getting heavily criticized right now. Now, all people are going to talk about is how rump paid higher rate than Obama, MSNBC, bernie, and romney.

i think you are over-estimating the post-election influence of this topic a lot, especially when published on MSNBC...arguably cause other gigs weren't interested anymore, i guess.

red meat for blue voters, imho.

The Trump tax returns are a lot more legitimate an issue than the Russia-phobia we've been seeing from the other side, which I take as seriously as I do the theories about Frank Marshall Davis (which I'm sure Trump subscribes too. It's dumb, but can you call a conspiracy theorist millionaire who's empire is based solely on brand recognition an idiot? I'd call that cunning) or Obama being a Kenyan born KGB, Al Qaida aligned Muslim sleeper agent.

Maddow getting heavily criticized right now. Now, all people are going to talk about is how rump paid higher rate than Obama, MSNBC, bernie, and romney.

Sad! but true. The media is a bunch of choke artists

Disagree on this one issue, for once. This was a legitimate issue. I knew Trump did nothing wrong-he'd have been caught already judging by the deep state's opposition-but I'm glad this was brought up. This was only one year after all. While I'm convinced that Trump is too intelligent to flagrantly cheat on his taxes, we haven't seen anything yet. I'm positive there is nothing there, but I saw this as Rachel Maddow (a talking head) doing the job that Jake Tapper, Chuck Todd, and the NYT/WaPo should have been able to do.

This is a big fat juicy nothing-burger but I'm actually somewhat pleased with how it was handled on the whole.

[DrScholl]

There is more to the returns that Trump wants the public to know. If anything this release makes it harder for Trump to claim that the liberal media is lying on him should something more damning show up. If there is information that is damaging, it wouldn't be released now, it would be released closer to elections.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

This particular return is so Trump-friendly, I have to wonder if it was leaked to the media by Trump in an attempt to dilute the call for all his returns.

Also, as to the audit thing, if any of his pre-2010 returns are still under audit, it almost certainly means the IRS suspects fraud.  The IRS operates under a statute of limitations. Once a return is filed, it generally has only three years from when it's filed (or due, whichever is later) to decide whether to take it to court or settle.  There are some exceptions that extend the deadline, but the only unlimited reason is if the taxpayeris found to have engaged in willful fraud.

[Beezer]

So is this a yuuuge W for Trump? Man of the people, paying higher tax rate than the Democrats.

[I Won - Get Over It]

You gotta be f**king kidding me.

It would be counted as a pretty good-looking Tax Returns even for an average Republican.

But Trump? The expectations were so low that it would be seen as best Tax Returns ever and he would be seen as good hard-working citizen paying millions in taxes.
No Russia (or anybody else) connections as well.

And I assume that it was the worst year media could find...

It has to be Trump himself. It is just too good.. And it will shift focus from ""whiretapping"" microwave to Trump paying taxes. Man, Trump's got to love media..