Trump Tweet Casts Doubt on 2005 Tax Return

President Donald Trump cast doubt on the release Tuesday night of parts of his 2005 tax return, in a Wednesday morning post on Twitter:

Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, "went to his mailbox" and found my tax returns? @NBCNews FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2017

Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income in 2005, the White House said Tuesday, in a response to a report by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that the network had gotten two pages of the returns.

The White House acknowledged that the 2005 return was genuine. 

Journalist David Cay Johnston received the return in the mail. He suggested that it is possible Trump leaked it himself. 

Commentators both Republican and Democrat criticized Maddow for the release, saying it contained nothing of note. Howie Carr called it a "nothing burger."

Shortly after Trump took to twitter, Johnston responded:

Gee, Donald, your White House confirmed my story. POTUS fake Tweet. Sad! https://t.co/ibK2ApKI9E

— David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) March 15, 2017

• Trump’s Tax Return Lean on Details
• Washington Post’s Bump: Trump’s Taxes Give ‘Incomplete Picture’