How to Attack Donald Trump

I believe it requires a multi pronged approach. But any approach where a major prong is not his tax returns falls well short of what it could be.

Jonathan Chait seems to agree:

"Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns could be seen as a process issue, perhaps even a vetting question so important that it’s “disqualifying,” as Mitt Romney has called it. But perhaps it could be something more than that. It might be the thin end of the wedge that opens up a powerful theme against the self-professed billionaire: that Trump is a total fraud."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/heres-how-hillary-clinton-should-attack-trump.html

I've heard some in the media now say that Trump is simply impossible to vet-nothing sticks to him. How would they know? It's not like the GOP vetted him in any meaningful way during the primary.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/05/no-donald-trump-is-not-teflon-not-even.html

To say that voters won''t care about his taxes is absurd. Ok, I get that Reince Priebus will try to sell that absurd theory-what else has he got. It can't be much fun having to defend Donald Trump of all people.

http://prospect.org/article/spare-thought-those-condemned-defend-donald-trump

But why would anyone put any credence in that absurd theory? Two problems with it:

1. GOP primary voters are not just different than general election voters, they are more or less the opposite. Precisely what GOP primary voters love about Trump, the general election voters hate about him.

2. During the GOP primary no one hit him on his taxes. George Will did argue in late February that 'It's time to talk about Donald Trump's taxes.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-wrecks-the-gop-by-driving-the-campaign-conversation/2016/02/21/b4b6c5b2-d8d4-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html

However, this was never followed up on. Marco Rubio did in the next debate after this post go after Trump in an erratic, everything but the kitchen kind of way, but it was unfocused and basically a Kamikaze mission.

By then Rubio's campaign was going down in flames and he tried to take out Trump's before he hit the bottom. It reeked of desperation and this wild performance was his swan song.

But there is a lot to talk about with Trump's taxes as George Will argued:

"What are you hiding by refusing to give the public the aesthetic pleasure of examining what you call your “beautiful” tax returns? Will you at least jot down on a piece of paper your gross income in each of the last three years? And your adjusted gross income on your personal tax returns in the last three years? And how much you paid in federal personal income taxes in those years? And how much each of your companies paid? Will you release the last five years of your personal financial statements — these are already prepared — that banks would have required you to submit annually in connection with the loans you list on the liabilities page of your financial disclosure report?"

"Trump probably hopes to secure the nomination before releasing pertinent information about his career that supposedly is his qualification for Lincoln’s chair. Perhaps, like Cole Porter, he knows when a love affair is too hot not to cool down."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-cool-down-donald-trump/2016/02/26/14571f9e-dbeb-11e5-891a-4ed04f4213e8_story.html

Trump did indeed secure the GOP nomination without revealing his beautiful tax returns. But this is the general and the rules are different.

Democrats should literally demand he release them every single day. Don't tell me this won't matter. He was already getting pretty frustrated with George Stephanopolous last week. What if this is how every interview goes for him?

Dems should demand this. They should say that if he won't release his returns, there is no way to vet him for the highest office in the land. He has no public record. So you have to start somewhere. Will's questions are the place to start. 

What is he so afraid of? That he shows him a tax cheat? Or that he's not nearly as rich as he says he is.

Every speech Hillary gives she should start by pointing out that it's been X days without him releasing his tax returns and it's Y days until the convention. 

Point that out at every debate in the Fall. 

Laughably, I see some GOPers are now trying to suggest she won't show up for her Trump debate in the fall. Sure. She's the one that spent the primary ducking debates. Oh wait.