Tax Day demonstrators demand Trump release tax returns

Published 7:45 am Monday, April 17, 2017

CHICAGO — Protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide Saturday to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, saying Americans deserve to know about his business ties and potential conflicts of interest.

Organizers said the protests — dubbed the Tax March — were scheduled in nearly 150 cities.

Trump is the first major party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his tax returns, saying it was because he was under audit. He later said that voters don’t care.

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“We do care. We want to see his taxes,” said Ann Demerlis, who was among hundreds who marched in Philadelphia from City Hall to an area in front of historic Independence Hall, carrying signs and chanting “We want your taxes now!”

“It’s possible that he can now show his taxes, because his current taxes are not being audited,” said Demerlis.

Trump, who spent the morning at his Florida golf course, avoided several hundred protesters when his motorcade took a circuitous route back to Mar-A-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida, estate. Protesters marched across the bridge that divides West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, chanting and hoisting signs that read “Don the Con,” ‘’Go back to New York,” ‘’Show your taxes!” and “Show me the money!”

In Washington, D.C., one of Trump’s sharpest critics in the House spoke to protesters at the U.S. Capitol just before they set off on a march to the National Mall. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, of California, said there’s nothing to prevent Trump from releasing his income taxes and that “the simple truth is he’s got a lot to hide.”

“If he thinks he can get away with playing king, he’s got another thought coming,” Waters said.

Earlier, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, called on Trump to ‘knock off the secrecy and said people have “a basic right to know whether the president pays his fair share.”