title:  If Trump Had Known About This Nixon Era Law, He Wouldn’t Have Run For President
text: Throughout the election, Donald Trump s tax returns have remained a mystery. He said he d release them if he won, but so far, crickets. It s not a giant leap to imagine that Trump has something either incriminating or simply something bad in his taxes. Would Trump have run for president if he knew a little known law that makes every single presidential tax return go through an automatic audit?The last time we had a known tax evader in office was during the Richard Nixon administration. His Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign in 1973 after pleading guilty to tax evasion. Nixon himself was twice audited by the IRS. In 1974, he had to pay $465,000 worth of back taxes for a three year period.After that, Nixon made all his tax returns public. Since then, all but Gerald Ford, and now Trump, have. The IRS even passed a law requiring that all sitting presidents and vice presidents are audited every year. The requirement for mandatory audits of the tax returns of the president and vice president dates back to the Watergate era in the 1970s,  the IRS said in a statement to McClatchy, noting that non-partisan career employees adopted the requirement.  Since then, this provision has remained in place during both Republican and Democratic administrations as well as under IRS Commissioners appointed by both parties. Source: McClatchyBefore you get too excited, the law also specifically outlines how the President s and Vice President s taxes are handled: in special orange folders, in a secure area and with confidentiality. In other words, if Trump isn t breaking laws, we still won t be able to see his tax returns.There is a chance that Trump could get the law overturned: I don t believe there is anything that would prevent the president from   instructing that this precautionary measure of the IRS audits be rescinded,  said Norman Eisen, who as special counsel to the Obama White House during the first term put in place new ethics guidelines.  He could theoretically do it. Trump could even go beyond having that law overturned. Many Republicans want to abolish the IRS altogether, which is a stupid idea, one which would surely bankrupt the country, but Donald Trump has shown himself to be thin-skinned and completely self-interested. If he has a beef with the IRS, the Republican Congress could be sympathetic.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images