1 P.M. Bryant Park, Manhattan.
In a month dominated by military action in the Middle East, murky entanglements with Russia, and infighting at the White House, the topic of paperwork doesn’t make for the most scintillating of headlines. But on Saturday, some 45,000 people gathered near Bryant Park to call for the release of President Donald Trump’s tax returns: documents critics see as a smoking gun for fraud, deceit, and conflict of interest within the administration. Though Trump had previously promised to make his tax returns public, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was able, in March, to obtain a single 1040 form from 2005, so far the former businessman has failed to follow a norm established by President Gerald Ford in the 1970s.
Planned for April 15, the typical deadline for submitting federal tax returns, the Tax March drew tens of thousands of demonstrators across the U.S. In New York, the protest was less about the president’s financial dealings and more an airing of grievances over the sexism, xenophobia, and secrecy that’s been associated with the Trump administration since the campaign. Holding signs that read “Grab Him by the Taxes” and “Show Me the Money,” the crowd made its main objective clear: transparency within the country’s highest office.
Text by Jackson Connor; photography by Luc Kordas for the Village Voice.