--- title: Watch Donald Trump Change Positions on Releasing His Taxes description: Donald Trump has changed tactics on the question of whether he would follow a decades-old precedent and release his old tax returns. canonical: https://time.com/5571077/donald-trump-tax-returns-arguments/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-15T21:30:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:28:02.475Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Donald Trump Change Positions on Releasing His Taxes og:description: He once said he "absolutely" would provide them to the public og:url: https://time.com/5571077/donald-trump-tax-returns-arguments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c349b5e1ebe9ce6/698947df8fd2ee21ea35e10e/presidenttrumptaxes.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Donald Trump Departs White House For Border Trip og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Donald Trump Change Positions on Releasing His Taxes twitter:description: He once said he "absolutely" would provide them to the public twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c349b5e1ebe9ce6/698947df8fd2ee21ea35e10e/presidenttrumptaxes.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Changing Positions On Releasing His Taxes > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=03ad2df1-3c37-44b7-9aeb-9c80e010fe6c&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch Donald Trump Change Positions on Releasing His Taxes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Donald Trump Change Positions on Releasing His Taxes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7xTV0MES.m3u8) (2:44)  _Published 2019-04-15. Watch Donald Trump Change Positions on Releasing His Taxes_ by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [Lauren Bogholtz](https://time.com/author/lauren-bogholtz/) Apr 15, 2019 9:30 PM UTC by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [Lauren Bogholtz](https://time.com/author/lauren-bogholtz/) Apr 15, 2019 9:30 PM UTC Donald Trump said he would release his tax returns. Then he said he’d do it after an audit. Now he says the public doesn’t care. Over the years, the president and members of his Administration have changed tactics several times on the question of whether he would follow a decades-old precedent and release his old tax returns. In a 2014 interview, Trump said he would release the returns, without any qualifications. “If I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns, absolutely,” he [told “Ireland AM.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg-5KEt1Abg) “And I would love to do that.” But once he was actually running, he added some caveats, first saying that he would not to have [“everything all approved”](https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-january-24-2016-n503241) by his accountants, then claiming — falsely — that he [could not release them](http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1602/25/se.01.html?iid=EL) because he was under audit. “Obviously if I’m being audited, I’m not going to release a return,” he told CNN. Still, Trump pledged that he would release the tax returns before Election Day. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/730500562022760448) He didn’t. And not long after the election, some of his staffers put forward a new argument: He didn’t need to release them because the public had showed they did not care about the issue by electing him. “We litigated this all through the election,” said White House advisor Kellyanne Conway. “People didn’t care.” That’s not true. In fact, polls regularly show that [a majority of Americans think he should release his tax returns](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/trump-tax-returns-voters-polls-show-americans-want-them.html), with support sometimes [as high as 74%](https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2375), depending on the wording. Recently, Trump shifted tactics again, [falsely claiming](https://www.factcheck.org/2019/04/trump-wrong-about-tax-law/) that there is no law requiring that he release his tax returns to a congressional committee that has requested them. “No, there is no law,” he said. “As you know, I got elected last time with this same issue. And while I’m under audit, I won’t do it. If I’m not under audit, I would do it. I had no problem with it. But while I’m under audit, I would not give my taxes. 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