There is very little that the conservative columnist, George Will, and I agree on unless it’s baseball. Will, however, has raised an interesting theory about the reasons behind Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns.
It is worth noting that every Presidential candidate of either party has released their tax returns beginning with the election of 1976. Donald Trump flatly refuses to do so.
Initially, Trump claimed that he couldn’t release them because he was being audited by the IRS and left the possibility that he might release them when the audit was concluded. When it was demonstrated that an audit was no bar to disclosing the returns, he shifted his position to a blanket refusal which presently he adhere to.
Trump’s position, naturally, raised questions about what the tax returns might reveal.
Is he not as wealthy as he claims to be?
Did his charitable giving not measure up to his boasts about his generosity?
Whatever the reason behind the refusal, Trump and his advisers had to know that the refusal would simply raise more and more questions about what he is trying to hide.
George Will has raised a new, very plausible, explanation.
Trump is trying to avoid having to reveal the business ties and ventures he has to Russian oligarchs and their patron, Vladimir Putin.
Several months ago it was disclosed that the Democratic National Committee’s computer network had been hacked. On the eve of the Party’s Convention almost twenty-thousand e-mails were posted on WikiLeaks. The e-mails revealed that the DNC staff was not neutral during the Party’s Presidential primary contests but had been working to promote the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and undermine the candidacy of her rival for the nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders.
This past Friday more e-mails were posted on WikiLeaks involving donors and personal information about staffers and Democratic officials was disclosed.
It is no surprise that the e-mails were posted on WikiLeaks site since its founder, Julian Assange, is hostile to Hillary Clinton. He believes that she has advocated his extradition from Britain to Sweden where he faces criminal charges involving Rape. He has been holed-up in the Ecuador Embassy avoiding extradition since 2012.
The more interesting question is who was behind the hacking operation and why.
Law enforcement authorities investigating the hack, lay responsibility at the feet of Russian intelligence services. Was Vladimir Putin attempting to injure the Clinton campaign and tip the election to Donald Trump?
Since the beginning of his campaign, Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Putin and has declined to criticize any of his foreign or domestic policies. Up to know this “bromance” has been the subject of late night talk show host monologues and other pundits who find Trump’s admiration of Putin somewhat amusing.
A look, however, at the person running the Trump campaign should give us some pause from treating this as harmless.
In March 2016 Trump hired Paul Manafort to advise his campaign on delegate selection and in June gave him the role of Campaign Manager. He is now the person in charge of the Trump campaign.
Manafort’s history includes working with Russian and Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs and was deeply involved in a disputed election in the Ukraine for a Putin protégé. He has also, reportedly, been intimately involved in a number of financial ventures with the same oligarchs in that country.
Shortly after Manafort joined the Trump campaign, Trump reversed his stand on Russia’s annexation of Crimea now finding it acceptable.
Trump has taken a number of other stands that could only further the desire of Putin for a Trump victory including sending the Russian leader a signal that he might not fulfill this country’s treaty obligation as part of the NATO alliance.
A former Acting Director of the CIA, Michael Morell, has called Trump an “unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”
It’s disturbing that a Russian despot and a fugitive sex offender would, hand in hand, try to influence the outcome of an American Presidential election.
Has Trump, Like Manafort, been involved in financial ventures with the same or similar Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs during his career?
Are any of the deals alive or dead?
Would his allegiance be to those deals trump his allegiance to the United States and its allies were he to become President?
Those are all legitimate questions.
Some or all of them could be answered if Trump were to disclose his tax returns.
Until that happens, George Will’s concern remains an important and valid one.
An article I read chronicled Trump’s 30 years of being the butt of many jokes. He was scorned by elitists in NYC & beyond. When Obama ridiculed him in 2011 at the correspondence dinner, the image painted of him was “Carrie with pig blood dripping off.” The description by his ghost writer of “The Art Of The Deal” describes Trump as one who has “no attention span” & hates answering questions. Between these characteristics and his obvious anger toward those who have ridiculed him for decades, I fear these are the most dangerous aspects of his personality. His revenge is creating hoards of Americans who believe he is their savior. The implosion will come from within our country ~ not unlike the Civil War.