The unauthorized release of three pages of Donald Trump’s 1995 tax returns is unlikely to do much damage to the Republican presidential nominee, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Monday.
“I don’t think it’s harmful. I think people who don’t like him are going to continue disliking him,” Ryan told the Detroit Free Press while campaigning for GOP congressional candidates in Michigan.
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Copies of Trump’s tax documents were published by the New York Times over the weekend and revealed that the billionaire had declared a $916 million loss in 1995. Taking such a substantial loss could have allowed Trump to avoid paying more than $50 million in annual income taxes for nearly two decades, tax experts told the Times.
The story became immediate fodder for Hillary Clinton, who has long accused her Republican opponent of wanting to enrich himself at the expense of the American people.
“While millions of American families, including mine and yours, were working hard, paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing nothing to our nation,” Clinton said during an appearance Monday in Toledo, Ohio.
Ryan argued that the numbers in Trump’s tax returns “are big because he’s a multibillionaire” and shouldn’t be as shocking as Clinton and other Democrats are making them out to be.
The Wisconsin Republican urged Trump to release all of his tax documents last month, though he told reporters he would “leave it to him when to do it.”
