The new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll shows that a slim and diminishing majority of voters still wants Trump to release his tax returns:
The majority of American voters still want President Donald Trump to release his tax returns — but less so than before he was elected.A new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll found 53% of voters say Trump should be forced to release his tax returns, and 51% say Trump’s taxes are either very or somewhat important to them. Additionally, 45% say Trump’s taxes are relevant to his job in the White House.
He should release them, and they are relevant to his job. Unfortunately, though, the issue just isn’t relevant, and it’s not for lack of trying.
I didn’t think in a million years that anyone who refused to release his tax returns could be elected president. I thought that David Fahrenthold’s Pulitzer-winning work on Trump’s charitable activity (or lack thereof) would put immense pressure on him to do it.
But the voters had other ideas, and polls like this one suggest they will care less and less over time.
Like any number of other issues where voters signal concern but never care at the ballot box — global warming, Merrick Garland, campaign finance — the issue of Trump’s tax returns turned out to be completely ineffectual from a political perspective. It was one among many, many dogs that I thought would bark during the 2016 election, but which just never did.
