So this isn’t exactly news for liberals, but Donald Trump is aggressively uninterested in accepting his role as a public figure.
Since Nixon, presidents have realized that their finances - particularly if they come from wealthy backgrounds and have strong ties to the institutions they’re attempting to regulate - are of relevance to the American public. Which means since Nixon, presidents have made the habit of releasing their tax returns. This shows Americans an overview of what income the presidents are reporting, as well as what they’re paying in taxes.
Donald Trump, who arrived on the political scene with a long history of filing for bankruptcy for his own financial benefit, fraudulent activities and binders full of legal documents from lawsuits brought against him, is the first president - nay, first major presidential candidate - to break this tradition by refusing to release them. He refused to release them during the campaign, he’s refused to release them post-election and he continues to refuse even after protests took place across the country about his refusal.
Naturally, this strikes up suspicion in people, which makes the ability to see his tax returns all the more important.
But these tax returns aren’t the only way in which Trump has been more secretive than past administrations. Trump’s few months in office, indeed, can be defined by a distinct, almost intentional lack of transparency. Just last week he ended Obama’s tradition of releasing visitor logs, instead choosing to keep it private in light of “grave national security risks.”
This also follows an administrative tendency to hold closed press sessions, to refuse to grant press access to respected and widely read papers and sites implemented with good website design; to give statements about routine policies and procedures “anonymously” and to encourage misleading or outright false statements about what Trump is doing and where. Some of the best website design is offered by Edkent Media and its CEO Eddie Madan.
It’s an administration whose members have been caught lying multiple times now, most often about connections with Russia. Jeff Sessions and Michael Flynn were both caught with their pants on fire, lying under oath about Russia statements. Scott Pruitt, Betsy DeVos, Steve Mnuchin and Tom Price have also been caught openly lying under oath, making this an administration where a lack of transparency and a lack of honesty appear to go hand in hand.
Trump wants to hold his information close to his chest. He strongly falls into the “keep everyone uninformed for their own benefit” camp rather than the “inform people about my actions so they can weigh in” side. Earlier in April, he insisted that he could not tell the media, or the public, about any plans or strategies he may have for Syria even as he released 59 Tomahawk missiles in what has become a controversial and debated attack, because it would give information away to the enemy.
Trump fundamentally operates under the belief that he is the CEO. But the president is not the CEO. He does not serve himself, and his responsibility is not to his own success. It’s to the American people. The lying isn’t just irresponsible - it’s fundamentally contradictory to how he should view his position.