You may remember the “We the People” petition site launched under President Obama, which allowed citizens to petition the White House and, at the very least, receive an official response if they reached 100,000 signatures. Under Obama, that was used for some serious matters as well as a lot of fun along the way. Under Donald Trump, on the other hand, the first wave of petitions has something very specific in mind: holding Trump accountable for his finances and conflicts of interest.
Too bad all those joke petitions during the Obama days caused them to raise the number of signatures needed for a response from 25,000 to 100,000, huh? Don’t worry; we’re confident that enough people who aren’t reporters do care about Trump’s finances, whether or not he says otherwise. As we’ve discussed before, his plan to address his conflicts of interest is nonsense, as agreed upon by the Office of Government Ethics, so we’re eager to see what the new White House’s response is in the face of direct proof that citizens want answers. (We’re guessing it’ll just be more lies.)
Right now, the first petition on the site demands that Trump release his tax returns to the public. He’s claimed that the financial disclosures he’s made are in fact more informative than his tax returns would be, but that’s not actually true. There’s also a petition on the site, tax returns notwithstanding, to ask Trump to actually divest from his businesses or put them in a real blind trust, not a fake one with his kids. Again, the head of the Office of Government Ethics has explained thoroughly why Trump should do this and that it’s not too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States.
I wonder how long it’ll take before this part of the White House’s website is dismantled, just like other telling sections.
(via Tal Kopan on Twitter, image via screengrab)
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