Editorial: The Donald sits on his returns

While every major party nominee for president in the past 40 years has released his or her tax returns before the election, Donald Trump continues to hold out, saying that he’s waiting until the completion of an ongoing audit.

Mr. Trump has a right to do what he wants with his tax returns. But this is a presidential election and Mr. Trump’s stonewalling is just plain bad strategy.

During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last week, Mr. Trump refuted the host’s assertion that voters have a right to see his tax returns, but said that he “will really gladly give them” access to the documents once the audit is complete.

“I built a massive business and want to make sure everything’s perfect,” he said. “And it’s a routine audit, and I want to get through the audit first.”

But the last Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, said Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his returns makes it appear he has something to hide. “It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters,” he wrote, “especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service.”

Mr. Romney has a right be to be a bit chafed by this issue.

In case you’ve forgotten, Mr. Romney’s campaign took a big hit in 2012 when he hesitated to release his returns. Sen. Harry Reid pounced on the issue, famously claiming that an anonymous source had told him that the GOP nominee hadn’t paid taxes in 10 years. Despite the fact that those allegations were eventually debunked by fact-checkers, the damage was done.

Sen. Reid remains unapologetic about his fabrication, proudly reminding a CNN interviewer in April that “Romney didn’t win, did he?”

Hillary Clinton is already playing up the controversy. Expect that to continue.

The Democratic frontrunner called out Mr. Trump last week, telling a crowd in New Jersey that major party nominees are “kind of expected” to release their returns. “My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns, we’ve got eight years on our website right now,” Mrs. Clinton said. “So you have got to ask yourself, why does he not release them?”

Mr. Trump, of course, responded quickly, calling Mrs. Clinton a “very great hypocrite” and asking when she was going to release her missing emails or her Goldman Sachs speeches.

Touche.

But as long as Mr. Trump refuses to release his returns, he hands a juicy issue to the Democrats that could resonate with more and more undecided voters.