MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow stopped by “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday night to discuss her reveal of President Trump’s tax returns that left some viewers disappointed earlier in the week.
“Was there a huge, damning bombshell in these tax returns? No. The bombshell here is that some of his tax returns were made public for the first time when he’s been trying so hard to keep them secret,” Maddow told Fallon.
The “Tonight Show” host, who made headlines during the presidential campaign for playing with Trump’s hair in a softball interview, asked what the worst-case scenario would be for the president.
“The reason you want any president’s tax returns is because you want to know if he’s beholden to anybody,” Maddow said. “You want to know if he might be acting as president with divided loyalties.”
Maddow sent the media industry into a frenzy less than 90 minutes before her show kicked off on Wednesday by tweeting, “BREAKING: We’ve got Trump tax returns” — adding, “seriously,” to increase the level of anticipation. Eventually she clarified, explaining that she only had the first two pages of Trump’s 1040 form from back in 2005. But the buildup was already significant enough that most seemed to expected some sort of bombshell.
When Maddow’s program finally started, she spent the first segment explaining why it’s so important that everyone knows what’s on Trump’s tax returns. After the Twitter hype and lengthy monologue, it was time for the big reveal: Trump paid $38 million in federal income taxes on a reported income of $150 million back in 2005.
Check out the video above.