Tax Return Inquiry First Petition on Trump White House Website
Social media is beginning to notice that the Whitehouse.gov website deleted pages related to LGBT issues and climate change almost immediately after Donald Trump completed the oath of office.
Add to that one more curiosity — the famed White House petition process appears to be thwarting an early attempt at asking the new president to release his tax returns.
A single petition is visible right now on the site, to “(i)mmediately release Donald Trump’s full tax returns, with all information needed to verify emoluments clause compliance.”
Petitioner “A.D.” asks the White House to release Trump’s returns because “(t)he 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.”
Many people who have tried to sign the get an error message, however.
A petition requires at least 150 signatures to be visible. The count on signatures has been reset several times over the last hour, however. This may be a technical problem, a function of web administrators mirroring the site under unusually-heavy hit volume. Or it could be Trump’s web team trying not to let the first petition of his administration be one this embarrassing.
About Author
George Chidi
Former staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other publications. Former Pine Lake city councilman, Former corporate spy. Occasional contributor to The Guardian.
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Just worked for me. Awaiting the knock on the door…
I just signed both it and a second petition demanding divestment or a blind trust:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/divest-or-put-blind-trust-all-presidents-business-and-financial-assets
The petition crossed the 100K threshold overnight, and it’s currently closing in on 125,000.
The most signatures any petition on the site has ever received was 367,000. I’m curious to see if this one can surpass that record, and if so, how quickly.