2 in 3 want to see Trump tax returns: poll

Two in three respondents said in a new poll that they want to see President Trump’s tax returns, following recent split Supreme Court decisions.

The Reuters-Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that 66 percent of respondents said the president “should release his tax returns from earlier years” and 68 percent said “Americans have a right to see each presidential candidate’s financial records before the election.”

The survey was conducted after the Supreme Court’s ruling last week to permit New York state prosecutors access to Trump’s taxes, access which will likely not happen before the 2020 election. The Supreme Court also denied Congress access to the records last week. 

Trump has declined to release his tax returns for years, going against the typical tradition of presidential candidates.

About half of the participants in the new poll said they believe the president has been withholding his income taxes because they could harm his reelection interests. A total of 26 percent said the returns contain “incriminating evidence against him,” while 16 percent reported believing that the president doesn’t want to release his taxes because he “does not pay taxes.”

Fourteen percent said the president is not revealing his returns to push back against liberals, 10 percent said Trump is “trying to hide significant financial losses,” and 3 percent said he hasn’t released them because he’s too busy with the coronavirus pandemic.

In the past, Trump has said the returns haven’t been released because they are under audit. Seven percent of respondents in the new poll said they believed his reasoning.

“This is an issue that was litigated before the voters in 2016 and the American people elected Donald Trump president of the United States,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Reuters.

“He released more than 100 pages of financial documents in that election,” Murtaugh added. “It’s no secret that President Trump is a wealthy man who was successful in business before giving it up to serve the American people.”

Presumptive Democratic nominee former Vice President Joe Biden has published years of financial disclosures and tax returns on his campaign website. 

The Reuters-Ipsos poll surveyed 1,115 people online between July 13 and 14. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.