THOUSANDS of protesters have taken to the streets in America to call on their President to release his tax returns.
Unlike just about every other president and candidate for president in the last 40 years, Donald Trump has been reluctant to release details of what he earns and how much he has paid in taxes.
In Florida, where hundreds protested outside the Mar-a-Lago resort where Trump is spending Easter, those demonstrating held signs calling the half-Scottish tycoon the “Chicken in Chief”.
“Pay your taxes” they chanted.
“This is the closest we have come to making sure he sees us and hears us,” Debbie Wehking, a school principal from Miami told the New York Times.
“He needs to show us his tax returns so that we can tell who’s influencing his decisions, who he owes money to, who he’s doing business with — really so we can figure out whether he needs to be impeached.”
Trump calls Mar-a-Lago his Southern White House, but it’s is still a fully functioning private members club, where each visit costs the American taxpayer millions.
On Saturday morning the president’s motorcade avoided the protest, taking a long route to drop Trump off at his club in Palm Beach for what was his 19th round of golf since his inauguration on January 20.
In Washington several thousand people gathered, many holding replicas of chickens with golden, Trump-like bouffant hair.
The White House say Trump cannot release his tax returns because he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.
Campaigners point out that the tax returns of presidents and vice presidents are automatically audited every year, and despite this every president since Richard Nixon has made at least a portion of his tax records public.
“How can we determine his conflicts of interest or stop him from receiving payments from foreign governments if he won’t show us the names of the people and corporations that he is in active partnership with all over the world?” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, who appeared at the Washington rally.
In Berkeley, California police arrested 21 people after hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators and counter-protesters clashed at a “Patriots Day” rally.
Some of those arrested were charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Eleven people were injured, and one person was stabbed.
Trump accused the protesters of being paid for by political rivals.
Writing on Twitter, the President said: “Someone should look into who paid for the small organised rallies yesterday. The election is over!
“I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican – easily won the Electoral College! Now tax returns are brought up again?”
In the US, April 15 is colloquially known as Tax Day as it is usually the day on which individual tax returns are due.
Last month, two pages of the President’s 2005 tax return were obtained by investigative reporter David Cay Johnston and published by the site DCReport.org.
They appeared to show that Trump paid $38 million (£30m) on an income of more than $150m (£120m).
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here