President Donald Trump has refused to release his tax returns, despite a decades-old precedent of presidential candidates releasing theirs to the public. | Susan Walsh/AP photo POLITICO/Morning Consult poll Voters split on release of Trump's tax returns, despite report he dodged taxes

Fewer than half of voters care that President Donald Trump hasn't released his tax returns, even as more than 60 percent said they were aware of a recent report alleging he had participated in tax fraud, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Forty-eight percent of respondents said they cared about Trump not releasing his returns, while 43 percent said they didn't care. Meanwhile, 64 percent said they had seen, read or heard “a lot” or “some” about the New York Times report that he received hundreds of millions from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through what the paper termed “tax dodges,“ while 36 percent said they heard “not much” or “nothing at all.”


Democrats have used the Times report to return the spotlight to Trump's refusal to release his returns, despite a decades-old precedent of presidential candidates releasing such documents to the public.

Responses to the returns question broke sharply along partisan lines, with 76 percent of Democrats saying they cared about his refusal, compared to 18 percent of Republicans. Among independents, 50 percent said they cared, 40 percent didn’t and the rest were undecided.

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The poll, conducted Oct. 7, surveyed 2,189 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy. More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — toplines and crosstabs.