Many people. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Breaking with decades of precedent, Donald Trump has refused to make his tax returns public before November’s election. This has produced widespread speculation about why the GOP nominee doesn’t want the public to get a look at his finances. Some have speculated that the returns would reveal disconcerting ties to Russian oligarchs and/or secret financial woes. But others think there might be something else going on.

Many people are saying that Trump’s tax returns reveal donations to the North American Man/Boy Love Association, an advocacy group for pedophiles. The theory has been floated by several highly reputable Twitter accounts, and Google Trends registered a spike in searches for “Trump and NAMBLA” in recent days.

According to the Daily Beast, the discussion was kicked off by a post on esteemed social-media site Reddit, which has brought many things to light, not all of them pleasant.

But why doesn’t Trump want to release his [tax returns]? Could it be because he donated a sizable amount of money to NAMBLA and he wants to cover it up? I’m not saying Trump donated money to NAMBLA , but people are saying that. It’s something I’ve heard, but I don’t believe Donald Trump donated several million dollars to NAMBLA over the last several years. Still, if he did that would be a great reason to not release his tax returns. But look, I’m not here to say whether or not Donald Trump donated millions to NAMBLA , I’m just here to let you know that every candidate has released his tax returns over the last 40 years, so there has to be a reason he doesn’t, and several very smart people are saying he contributed millions of dollars to NAMBLA .

“Maybe that’s right, maybe that’s wrong, but I don’t know why he doesn’t release his records,” Trump said in 2011, when demanding that President Obama dispel the rumor that he was born in Kenya by releasing his birth certificate. The same can be said, just as fairly, about Trump’s alleged ties to NAMBLA in 2016.

Some may think it irresponsible to spread inflammatory accusations that have no evidentiary basis other than the fact that other people are spreading them. But Donald Trump has always believed that there’s no harm in asking questions.

Like in September, when a voter informed Trump that President Obama is a Muslim and that he’s allowed American Muslims to set up “training camps” where “they want to kill us.”

“We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” Trump replied. “And you know, a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there.”

Or after the Pulse nightclub shooting, when Trump noted what many people had been saying about Obama’s disinterest in defeating ISIS.

“Well, there are a lot of people that think maybe he doesn’t want to get it,” Trump said. “A lot of people think maybe he doesn’t want to know about it. I happen to think that he just doesn’t know what he’s doing, but there are many people that think maybe he doesn’t want to get it.”

Or in his recent comments on Hillary Clinton’s role in Vince Foster’s death.

“Somebody asked me the question the other day, and I said that a lot of people are very skeptical as to what happened and how he died.”

Or on Monday night, when Trump shared what very smart people were saying about how Hillary Clinton’s private email server led to the execution of an Iranian scientist.

Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2016

Inspired by Trump’s commitment to a free and open discourse, Reddit user J Peterman built a bot that responds to any mention of “tax returns” with the comment, “Speaking of tax returns, did you hear Donald Trump is refusing to release them because Donald Trump has donated to NAMBLA? That’s what all the best sources, the most tremendous sources are saying.”

Dozens of other Reddit users created new threads about the allegations, then BuzzFeed community pages, and a fake Fox News article. Many Google searches about Donald Trump and North America’s foremost association of pedophiles ensued.

It’s worth noting that there’s no substantive evidence that Trump has ever donated money to NAMBLA. Given the mogul’s broader aversion to giving money to any charity or organization, the chances that he gave to this particular advocacy group are miniscule. But then, there’s no substantive evidence that Obama is sympathetic to ISIS or that Hillary Clinton’s emails doomed an Iranian scientist. But that hasn’t stopped both Trump and his running mate from suggesting the latter.

Thus, many people are saying that Trump respects the trolls who are spreading the NAMBLA rumor, and that he would like it to be shared as widely as possible.