Trump's team is doing its best to block the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation. Part of what he seems to be worried about is that Mueller would be able to access several years of his tax returns, something he has never been ready to actually do, although he has promised to do it a number of times. Looking back into history, not one president since Jimmy Carter have refused to release their tax returns.
While this investigation is not about his tax returns, and that's also what he seems to be pretty irritated about, but his Russia connections, his fear that his tax returns could be studied seems to be genuine. And if the fear is genuine genuine, there must be something there.
A close advisor to Trump said to WP that
"If you're looking at Russian collusion, the president's tax returns would be outside that investigation."
But why would he worry about this detail so much? His tax records should be made public one way or another. We know he thinks his tax records are so big, bigger than anyone else's and that he thinks people won't understand them. After all, it's complicated. But...why?
It definitely is funny to see what he actually cares about when it comes to the Mueller investigation. And that's mainly two things. Firstly, it seems he really wants to hide his tax returns. Secondly, his legal team is also looking into his pardoning power and whether he could pardon himself should the worst happen. Of course, he hasn't said those two things out loud. When it comes to tax returns, he's usually just shouting something out loud saying he doesn't understand why people want to see them. If he actually doesn't understand that, he shouldn't be the president. And if he's just trying to delay things until the end of his presidency and going forward, he still shouldn't be the president. And when it comes to looking into pardoning, a close advisor to to Trump said that
"This is not in the context of, 'I can't wait to pardon myself.'" - but, that doesn't mean he's not looking into it because he has the feeling he may have to do that. If that's possible at all, that is.
By definition a pardon is something you can only give to someone else, not to yourself. But if you could pardon yourself, it would firstly mean that you are guilty of something, otherwise, why would you need a pardon in the first place? And secondly, pardoning yourself, it would be like being a murderer, police, and court system all at once. And that would be rather fucked up.
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