WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump reported $150 million in income in 2005 and paid $38 million in taxes, according to tax return that was obtained by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and confirmed by the White House.
The release of two pages from the return came after months of efforts by journalists to obtain the returns.
The biggest surprise of the document is that Trump paid federal taxes. Speculation had been rife that Trump had used a nearly $1 billion business loss to shield himself from federal tax obligations for years.
The White House released the details after Maddow announced via Twitter that she would release the return during her show Tuesday night.
Maddow said the document was obtained by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, who wrote a book on Trump.
"We've got Trump tax returns," Maddow tweeted around 7:30 p.m. EDT. "(Seriously.)"
Trump ignored years of tradition and never released his tax returns during his campaign. This led to many questions about what may be in them. The returns have since become a mystery that has dogged the Trump administration since he declined to release them _ the first presidential candidate to refuse to make his returns public in decades.
"My understanding is he's still under audit and I'll follow up on the question," White House press secretary Sean Spicer replied to a question last week about whether Trump would release his returns.
Trump paid roughly 24 percent in 2005 federal taxes.
Despite the release, Americans still do not know where his money came from _ a question that has been asked for months _ only the sums.
"You want to see the sources of income," Johnston said.
Johnston said he's unable to determine Trump's sources of income, partners or interest payments from the documents.
The release of the 2005 tax return could end up being good news for the president.
Critics had long accused him of hiding his tax returns because he wasn't worth what he said or because he didn't pay much in taxes.
"He doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax" his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton said at a debate last fall.
Trump didn't deny the accusation.
"That makes me smart," he responded.
But both of those accusations were proven false with the release of the return.
Nonetheless, Democrats slammed Trump for withholding the returns from the public.
"The White House's willingness to release some tax information when it suits them proves Donald Trump's audit excuse is a sham," DNC senior adviser Zac Petkanas said. "If they can release some of the information, they can release all of the information. The only reason not to release his returns is to hide what's in them such as financial connections with Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin."
Former Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon warned Democrats not to get distracted by the information and keep focused on health care.
"Dems should return focus to Trumpcare tomorrow & the millions it will leave uninsured, not get distracted by two pages from '05 tax return," Fallon tweeted.
Clinton released her returns last summer during the campaign and called for him to do the same.
During the campaign, Trump he indicated that he used a nearly $1 billion claimed loss in 1995 to avoid paying federal income taxes.
He repeatedly promised to release his returns, but said he couldn't because of an audit.
Trump in May 2016 filed a financial disclosure form that showed he had 564 companies, and another seven associated with his wife Melania.
Most of these companies were formed after the 2005 tax returns and today he collects licensing fees for use of his name on hotels, condos and high-profile golf courses around the world. That means that while helpful, the 2005 returns would show little about the foreign business deals or even terms of the refinance of major debt he owed to Deutsche Bank, whose wealth management division handled the reworking of the his debt,
Trump has said he does pay federal taxes, but he won't say how much and insists he can't release his returns because of an audit. To date, most of what is known about his taxes comes from dated tax and court documents. A report from a New Jersey casino commission said that in 1978 and 1979 Trump reported negative income and paid no federal taxes, even as he publicly boasted of being a multimillionaire.
During the show, Maddow peppered Johnston with questions about details from Trump's returns.
"Is he not as rich as he says?" Maddow asked.
"Has he received money from foreign sources? Has he received loans?" she asked.
Even before the show aired, the White House released a statement:
"You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago," the statement said. "Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required. That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million dollars even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million dollars, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that."
The White House blasted the publication of the information, however. "It is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns," the statement said. "The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the President will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans."
Trump is the first president in decades to not publicly release his tax returns. Democrats have called for the release of the returns for years.
Jimmy Carter released his returns in 1976; incumbent President Gerald Ford released a summary. Since then, 19 of 20 major-party presidential candidates have released at least a year of tax returns, according to Joseph Thorndike, the director of the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts, a nonpartisan policy organization, and author of the "Politics of Federal Taxation" column for Tax Notes magazine.
