Trump Should Release Taxes, Texas Capitol Marchers Demand

AUSTIN, TX — Thousands of protesters marched to the state Capitol on Saturday while demanding that Donald Trump release his tax returns, one of several such demonstrations taking place throughout the country.

Trump is the first president in more than 40 years refusing to release his tax returns for public scrutiny. Those calling for their release —seven out of ten American, according to one survey—argue that such disclosure yields transparency, allowing citizens to know where a president's income is derived in ensuring no conflicts of interest or the possibility of being beholden to foreign interests.

“Americans across the country will, once again, come together to send a clear message to Donald Trump: the President is accountable to the American people, and he must answer to us,” reads Tax March Austin’s website. "Tax March Austin strives to ensure integrity in government by demanding transparency from our elected officials.For decades, presidential candidates have shared their tax returns with the public to demonstrate their freedom from financial conflicts of interest and fitness to represent America."

Trump has stubbornly refused to make his tax returns public, a reluctance he first expressed during his presidential campaign, claiming they were under audit. However, tax experts have said that an audit doesn't preclude the release of tax returns.

See also: Tax March: President Trump's Tax Returns At Center Of Saturday Demonstrations

A petition previously sent to the White House collecting well over the 100,000 signatures triggering a response also called for the release of Trump's tax returns. Asked by ABC News what that response might be, Trump surrogate Kellyanne Conway emphatically said Trump would not release his tax returns because "people don't care." Trump also has avoided the issue, calling it a media-manufactured controversy.

"The White House response is that he's not going to release his tax returns," Conway told George Stephanopoulos. "We litigated this throughout the election, people didn't care. They voted for him."

But people beg to differ. Timing their march to coincide with the deadline to file tax returns to the U.S. Treasury, march organizers said they do care. Trump's expressed admiration of Russia—a country led by authoritarian rule that all intelligence agencies now agree interfered with the presidential election through selective hacking—has only heightened the demands for the release of Trump's tax returns to discern if he is financially beholden to that country.

"On April 15, we are marching on the Texas Capitol to show that we do care. Americans —across the country will, once again, come together to send a clear message to Donald Trump: the President is accountable to the American people, and he must answer to us," organizers wrote on Facebook. "Because of his refusal, Americans have been denied the opportunity to vet his potential conflicts of interest, and have been left wondering why Mr. Trump is so intent on hiding his business dealings and financial ties."

Speakers at the protest, which took place from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, included Mario Carrillo, communications director at Voto Latino, a nonprofit promoting greater political engagement among Hispanics; J.C. Dufresne, president of the Texasa chapter of Common Cause, a nonprofit calling for government transparency; and Austin Kaplan, former chair of the the city's Ethics Commission.

With Austin being the "live music capital of the world," several musicians were on hand to give the local march a melodic twist. Julia Watkins-Davis, Resist Dance, Sue Young, Bill Oliver & The Otter Space Band and The Hot Nut Riveters were among the musicians performing at the march.

Other than Austin, marches in Texas were staged in the cities of Brownsville, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, McAllen, San Antonio, Sherman and Wichita Falls.

Click here to see the complete list of marches taking place across the country.

>>> Logo via Tax March Austin