President Donald Trump plans to file a disclosure shortly that will detail his assets and liabilities over the past year, a voluntary move that follows the practice of his most recent predecessors.
A White House official said Monday night that Trump will submit a personal financial disclosure covering the 2016 calendar year “in a short period of time,” confirming a report by the Associated Press.
The president is not required to file such a report with the Office of Government Ethics until next spring, but past presidents including Barack Obama and George W. Bush voluntarily submitted financial disclosures in the year they took office.
The filing will provide a look at the assets, debts and transactions of Trump’s real estate empire during the presidential election year. However, because the form only requires officials to report wide ranges of income and debt, it is impossible to use it to precisely gauge someone’s net worth. The report also does not require officials to report their exact income or tax rate or charitable giving — unlike a tax return, which the president has refused to release.
Trump’s last financial disclosure — which was filed in May 2016 and covered the previous 10 1/2 months — showed that his company’s revenues boomed as he launched his presidential bid. At the time, he touted the size of the report, saying that the 104-page disclosure was “the largest” in history.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Matea Gold
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