Kristen Peterson, a Donald Trump supporter, chants "show us the emails," as she walks among anti-Trump protesters chanting "show us your taxes," outside the Charlotte Convention Center on Aug. 18, 2016. | AP Photo Democrats plan Tax Day anti-Trump protests

Four months after kicking off Donald Trump’s presidency with massive protests in Washington and around the country, Democrats are again looking to flood the city with demonstrators, this time on Tax Day to demand that the president release his tax returns.

Leaders from January’s women’s marches are joining with a constellation of liberal groups, including MoveOn.org, the American Federation of Teachers, and Our Revolution — the organization built from the skeleton of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign — to bring together marchers to walk from the U.S. Capitol to the White House, passing both Trump’s hotel and the IRS building. Organizers say they also have more than 60 other marches planned in cities across the country.


Ever since millions of demonstrators hit the streets the day after Trump’s inauguration — and then protests erupted at airports the following weekend in response to the administration’s executive order restricting travel — party leaders have sought to turn the energy into sustained pressure on the White House. Other groups helping organize the April 15 protest include the Indivisible Project, Americans For Tax Fairness and the Center for Popular Democracy.

The announcement of the demonstration — branded the “Tax March” — comes on the heels of the dismissal of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn over his contact with the Russian government, and subsequent reports about the Trump campaign team’s contact with Russian intelligence officials. Democrats have long held that his tax returns could reveal secret business ties to Russian interests.

“Until we see his taxes, we don’t know how much money he owes Russia, China and other countries,” said MoveOn.org Washington director Ben Wikler. "If Trump won’t voluntarily release his taxes, Congress must force him to do it, as a matter of moral urgency, constitutional necessity and national security. The Tax March will demonstrate the intensity of the public’s demands for answers about just what it is that Donald Trump is so determined to hide, while highlighting the profound inequality encoded in our rigged tax system — which Trump has exploited for years, and which would only be made worse by his policies."

Trump’s tax returns were the subject of constant political fighting during the presidential campaign, when he became the first candidate in modern times to refuse to release them. Trump initially claimed to be under an audit that prevented him from publishing them, and he has since continued to refuse requests to publicize them.

Democrats in Washington and around the country, however, have been working to determine ways to force his hand.

The march was conceived after Frank Lesser, a comedy writer, tweeted the idea one day after the women’s marches.

“It’s fitting that at least one Trump-related march started out as a series of angry tweets,” said the former “Colbert Report” writer. “It’s a simple request, and tax returns are something that every modern president has released. For a guy who always brags about how rich he is, all of a sudden he’s eerily quiet."

