Trump tax returns

Trump on tax returns: Look what happened to Romney

'His is a peanut compared to mine.'

By Louis Nelson

Donald Trump has rarely had anything nice to say about Mitt Romney, but when it comes to tax returns, the Republican nominee treats his predecessor as a cautionary tale.

Trump has long refused to release his tax returns, saying that he is currently under audit. But asked Thursday night by Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren if he would release older tax returns that are not under audit, Trump said the beating Romney took in 2012 over his own tax returns should serve as a warning.

“I remember with Mitt Romney four years ago, everybody wanted his, and his is a peanut compared to mine. It's like a peanut. It’s very small. Not nearly as big a document. I mean, mine, you saw the picture where it's two or three feet high,” Trump said.

“Now, they finally got it in September. He decided to give it. And they found a couple of little minor things. Little things that didn't mean anything,” Trump continued. “He did nothing wrong. By the way, Mitt Romney did nothing wrong. But when they gave them, they found a couple of little sentences. If you remember Harry Reid lied about it. He told a dirty lie. And Mitt gave that and after he gave it, they found a little sentence and they made such a big deal. He might have lost the election over that.”

In 2012, Reid said on the floor of the Senate that Romney had not paid any taxes for 10 years, a claim that was widely debunked by the media and by the tax returns that the former Massachusetts governor released. The Nevada senator has long refused to apologize for making the claim, which he attributed to an unnamed source.

Trump himself has pledged to release his tax returns once the audit ends, which he has said he hopes happens before the election. The Manhattan billionaire has steadfastly refused to release his tax returns while under audit, even though the IRS said in February that “nothing prevents people from sharing their own tax information,” even an audit.