If that's his story, I guess he's sticking to it

Donald Trump now says that he won't be releasing any of his tax returns before the November election because, darn it, his audits are still ongoing.  Tough luck and all, but still.

When this issue came up earlier in the campaign, a few reporters called to ask me if it was true that, if you're being audited, you can't release your tax returns.  This was so clearly contrary to the actual rules - not having your returns released is a right you have against the IRS, not a right it has against you, and audits have nothing to do with it - that I half-asked myself: Am I missing something?  It was such a non sequitur as to be kind of like saying, I can't pay the bill for dinner, even though I said it's my treat, because I had a sandwich for lunch.

So I asked myself: Might Trump's tax advisors have asked him not to release his returns while they were being audited, for some tactical reason that I'm unaware of?  But I couldn't quite make sense of that either.  Plus, a presidential candidate is free to override what his attorneys who are handling the audit urge him to do for tactical reasons (whatever they might be).  So I assume the line about audits is just what he's decided to say.

That said, it is comical to see Romney saying that this is "disqualifying" for Trump's presidential campaign.  Romney released just 2 years of tax returns, well below the norm, possibly because something unpleasant was lurking in the years he declined to release.  Trump has merely reduced the number to be released from 2 to 0.  Perhaps Romney knows something from personal experience about just how "disqualifying" past years' tax returns can be.