Poll: Voters split on Trump’s tax returns

Voters are split on whether President-elect Donald Trump should release his tax returns, according to a new poll.

According to the Morning Consult/Politico poll, 45 percent of respondents say they care that Trump has not released the documents, while 44 percent say they do not.

The poll finds Republicans and independents are less interested in the president-elect’s tax returns than are Democrats.

Seventy-one percent of Democrats say they care Trump hasn’t released his tax returns.

{mosads}But only 20 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of independents say the same.

This is a shift from a poll take in May, in which 67 percent of registered voters said all presidential candidates should be required to release their tax returns.

In that May poll, 68 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 60 percent of Republicans said candidates should be required to release their documents.

The recent poll of 1,991 registered voters was conducted from Jan. 12 to 13. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.

At a press conference last week, the president-elect argued that no one but members of the media care about his tax returns.

“I’m not releasing tax returns because, as you know, they’re under audit,” Trump said in response to a question.

“You know, the only ones who care about my tax returns are reporters,” he added.

Trump said the public doesn’t care and that it’s an issue only important to reporters.

“I won; I became president. I don’t think they care at all,” Trump said about releasing his returns. “I think you care.”

Trump has maintained that he has not released his tax returns because he is under audit, though the IRS has said an audit does not prevent an individual from releasing tax returns.