WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today's inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesDonald Trump was sworn in to office Friday as the 45th president of the United States, and not long afterward, a petition was created on the official White House site demanding he release his tax returns.
Overnight, that petition on whitehouse.gov gained more than 119,000 signatures, which means the White House must issue an official response.
Trump, a former reality TV star and businessman, was dogged by reporters and rivals on the campaign trail to release his taxes, which he refused to do because he says he is “under audit.”
“The unprecedented economic conflicts of this administration need to be visible to the American people, including any pertinent documentation which can reveal the foreign influences and financial interests which may put Donald Trump in conflict with the emoluments clause of the Constitution,” according to the petition.
A portion of Trump’s old returns from 1995 were leaked to The New York Times, which promptly reported them in October. Those leaked documents showed the real estate mogul lost nearly $1 billion that year, which in turn meant he could avoid paying taxes for nearly 20 years.
Trump has stood firm that he will not release his taxes, even going so far to say at his most recent news conference last week that the media are the only ones who care, not the public who voted him into office.
