WASHINGTON — Donald Trump fought back Thursday against charges that he’s got something to hide in his tax filings, by tweeting a photo of himself signing the huuugest stack of returns ever seen.
“Signing recent tax return — isn’t this ridiculous,” Trump wrote of his tax tower.
The real estate mogul, who boasts that he’s worth more than $10 billion, finds himself fending off charges from Mitt Romney that there’s a “bombshell” waiting to be discovered in the returns, since Trump won’t release them.
“My returns, they’re extremely complex and I’ll make a determination at the right time. I’m in no rush to do it,” Trump told CNN Wednesday night, noting he gets audited “every single year.”
“We’ll make a determination over the next couple of months. It’s very complicated.”
Trump endorsed Romney for president in 2012, but whatever relationship they had is over.
“Mitt Romney, who was one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics, is now pushing me on tax returns. Dope!” Trump tweeted Thursday.
“I’m going to do what @MittRomney was totally unable to do — WIN!” Trump added.
Romney, who had a squeaky-clean, stuffed-shirt image in 2012, uncharacteristically shot back on Twitter: “Methinks the Donald doth protest too much. Show voters your back taxes, @realDonaldTrump. #whatIsHeHiding”
Romney certainly has experience with the impact of tax returns on a presidential campaign.
When he released his filings four years ago, they showed his effective tax rate was about 14 percent — giving Democrats fodder to accuse the multimillionaire of being part of the wealthy class that doesn’t pay its fair share to Uncle Sam.
The tax-return hubbub started Wednesday when Romney called for top GOP candidates Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to release their taxes.
But he paid special attention to Trump for dragging his feet.
Romney suggested the front-runner was hiding something — such as lackluster charitable donations to veterans, a lower net worth than claimed or low tax payments to the government.
“The voters have a right to see those tax returns before they decide who the nominee ought to be,” Romney told Fox News.
“The fact that he is so aggressive in avoiding any discussion of his taxes and is not willing to put them out so far suggests that there’s something in there he doesn’t want us to see.”
Cruz and Rubio have also failed to release their most recent returns.
Pressed Wednesday night at a Fox News town hall forum, Cruz said, “I’ll release the remainder of what we have this week.”
Rubio pledged he’ll release his tax return within the “next few days.”
Trump, who broke a promise in 2012 to disclose his returns if President Obama produced his long-form birth certificate, previously said it would take “three or four months” to prepare his taxes for release.
He also tweeted the same photo of himself next to the huge stack of returns last Oct. 15 with the caption: “signing my tax return.”
A Trump campaign spokesman confirmed the stack was indeed the actual filing, but declined to say whether the papers were his personal or corporate returns.
Last July, Trump released a financial disclosure form that included 92 pages of assets — hotels, golf courses, skin-care products, menswear, wineries, fragrances and mattresses.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who dropped out of the GOP presidential race, said Thursday that Trump may win the Republican nomination, but he’ll lose the general election.
“He’s just generally a loser as a person and a candidate,” said Graham, who threw his support to Jeb Bush before the former Florida governor also quit the race. “You can’t nominate a nut job and lose and expect it doesn’t have consequences.”
Hillary Clinton has already released her taxes.
But she’s now under pressure from Democratic rival Bernie Sanders and even the New York Times, which has endorsed her, to release transcripts of her paid speeches to banks and other industry groups.
“Voters have every right to know what Mrs. Clinton told these groups,” the Times wrote in an editorial Thursday. “By stonewalling on these transcripts, Mrs. Clinton plays into the hands of those who say she’s not trustworthy and makes her own rules.”
Also Thursday, Clinton apologized for a derogatory comment she made in 1996 when she referred to kids in gangs as “super-predators” who must be brought “to heel.”
“Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today,” Clinton said in statement to the Washington Post.
A young Black Lives Matter activist confronted Clinton with her comments Wednesday night at a fundraiser in South Carolina, a state where more than half of the Democratic electorate is black and where Clinton holds a large lead over Sanders going into Saturday’s primary.