Protesters march past the Trump International Hotel and the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington on April 15 during a demonstration calling on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. | AP Photo Trump claims tax return protesters were paid

President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that protesters were paid to hold rallies protesting the president for not releasing his tax returns.

"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?" the president tweeted. "Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!"


On Saturday, demonstrations were held nationwide in a call for Trump to release his tax returns. The rallies were held three days before this year's Tax Day, the deadline for taxpayers to file their federal returns.

Trump has repeatedly said he would not release his tax returns publicly because he says he was under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS, however, has said that the audit does not prohibit Trump from releasing his returns.

The president has also in the past claimed that protesters who have attended his rallies — and, more recently, those who have attended town halls for GOP congressional members — were paid to do so.

Activists have since denied Trump’s claims that protesters were paid, which, if true, would probably mean millions of dollars had been paid to the thousands of protesters around the country.

“We're like your taxes. Unpaid,” New York political activist Nick Jack Pappas tweeted in response to the president’s message.