Donald Trump is the first major party candidate in four decades to refuse to release his tax returns. Now, we might know why. Sort of. Not really.

Huey Lewis and the News superfan Donald Trump, Jr. gave an interview to The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review yesterday, where he stressed that the returns are just too huge, and too complicated, and people would ask too many questions.

"He's got a 12,000-page tax return that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from [his father's] main message," Trump, Jr. said.

That does sound inconvenient. Don't you hate it when you're running for the most powerful office in the world and people insist on scrutinizing your background? Can't they just let you stay on-message? Another highlight of the interview was when Trump, Jr. weighed in on former Secretary of State Colin Powell's leaked emails, one of which refers to Trump senior as "an international pariah."

"He probably doesn't know my father, and he doesn't know the guy that I know," Junior said. "I don't think he has the ability to comment on it intelligibly."

Fantastic.

Joe Raedle Getty Images

Previously, Trump said he can't release them because he's under audit by the IRS. (The IRS, and numerous tax lawyers, have said he can.) Also, many years of his returns, specifically 2002-2008, are not under audit. He could release those. After all, as Talking Points Memo reminds us, Hillary Clinton (and Bill) have put the entirety of their returns since 1977 online.

Trump also once said he's being audited because he's "a strong Christian."

In May, Trump said he was under the impression he had no obligation to release his returns. He also said there was "nothing to learn from them." Then he said he saw what happened to Mitt Romney when he released them and didn't want to meet the same fate. (Romney has said repeatedly that Trump should release the returns.) Meanwhile, reports have indicated that Trump pays little in taxes. For two years in the early 1990s, according to Politico, he paid "zero, or near-zero" in income taxes.

So, to recap: the taxes are too big and complicated, and they're under audit, and look what happened to Mitt Romney, and there's nothing there anyway, and this is all because he's a Strong Christian.

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Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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