--- title: Trump Inauguration: White House Petition Seeks Tax Returns description: A WhiteHouse.gov petition demanding that President Trump release his tax returns has surpassed 140,000 signatures canonical: https://time.com/4642465/trump-inauguration-tax-returns-petition/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-21T22:06:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:51:37.250Z article:section: Politics og:title: A Petition for Trump to Release His Taxes Has Enough Support for a Response og:description: The petition would require a response under an Obama administration policy og:url: https://time.com/4642465/trump-inauguration-tax-returns-petition/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24c0a4b9e3883975/6988b69bfb4eac176a8907b3/donald-trump-tax-return-petition.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Inside The Armed Services Inaugural Ball og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Petition for Trump to Release His Taxes Has Enough Support for a Response twitter:description: The petition would require a response under an Obama administration policy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24c0a4b9e3883975/6988b69bfb4eac176a8907b3/donald-trump-tax-return-petition.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Petition for President Trump to Release His Tax Returns Has Enough Support for a White House Response > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=30ef2c38-cdb5-400d-9b50-a19fcde2ca30&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 21, 2017 10:06 PM UTC  President Donald Trump, speaks during the Armed Services Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017. President Donald Trump, speaks during the Armed Services Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017. Pete Marovich—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 21, 2017 10:06 PM UTC A [WhiteHouse.gov petition](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediately-release-donald-trumps-full-tax-returns-all-information-needed-verify-emoluments-clause-compliance) demanding that [President Trump](http://time.com/4641547/inauguration-2017-donald-trump-america-first/) release his tax returns has surpassed 140,000 signatures — a figure that would require the White House to respond if the new administration continues to follow a policy instituted by its predecessor. “The 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,” the [petition](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediately-release-donald-trumps-full-tax-returns-all-information-needed-verify-emoluments-clause-compliance) reads. Trump broke with [decades of precedent](http://time.com/4326267/donald-trump-presidential-tax-returns-list/) by [refusing to release his tax returns](http://time.com/4470908/donald-trump-tax-returns-poll/) during the presidential campaign, citing a “routine audit.” A leaked [partial tax return](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html) obtained by the New York _Times_ last year showed that Trump might have avoided paying federal income taxes for 18 years. More than 146,000 people had signed the WhiteHouse.gov petition by Saturday at 4:30 p.m., just a day after Trump was sworn in. The Obama administration established a policy of responding to any WhiteHouse.gov petition that received more than 100,000 signatures in 30 days. It’s not yet clear whether the Trump administration plans to do the same. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4642465/trump-inauguration-tax-returns-petition/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4642465/trump-inauguration-tax-returns-petition/"},"headline":"A Petition for President Trump to Release His Tax Returns Has Enough Support for a White House Response","datePublished":"2017-01-21T22:06:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:51:37.250Z","description":"The petition would require a response under an Obama administration policy","url":"https://time.com/4642465/trump-inauguration-tax-returns-petition/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24c0a4b9e3883975/6988b69bfb4eac176a8907b3/donald-trump-tax-return-petition.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24c0a4b9e3883975/6988b69bfb4eac176a8907b3/donald-trump-tax-return-petition.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Inside The Armed Services Inaugural Ball","caption":"Inside The Armed Services Inaugural Ball","creditText":"Pete Marovich—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4642465/trump-inauguration-tax-returns-petition/","name":"A Petition for President Trump to Release His Tax Returns Has Enough Support for a White House Response"}}]}] ```