We need to see Donald John Trump’s tax returns. There can be no doubt about that.

Is the president legally obligated to provide them? No. He certainly is not. However, political tradition dating back more than four decades has resulted in presidents and candidates for president to allow the public full access to their personal financial condition.

Trump, though, keeps changing his tune. He once said he would release them once the Internal Revenue Service completed an audit; then he backed away from that pledge; now he is resisting efforts from Congress to obtain them in accordance with the law.

Why is this important?

He campaigned for president on the basis of the fabulous wealth he said he accrued. Trump kept boasting about how he is “really rich.” Now we hear from The New York Times that the real estate mogul lost more than a billion bucks for a decade ending in 1994, which seems to belie Trump’s assertion of his business brilliance.

More to the point, though, are the questions that continue to lurk out there regarding his business dealings with Russia. He said he does not do business with Russians. Those who are close to Trump say otherwise. Who’s telling the truth?

And, yes, the Russia issue is pertinent because of all those questions about the Russian involvement/interference in our 2016 presidential election.

Trump has thumbed his nose at countless political norms since announcing his presidential candidacy. One of them has been to withhold his tax returns from public view. There must be some reasons that Trump won’t reveal them: He isn’t as rich as he says he is; he gives next to nothing to charity; he doesn’t pay his share of federal taxes; he has extensive business dealings with those nasty Russians.

And yet, the president keeps insisting that there’s nothing to see. It’s time to move on.

Well, if there’s nothing to see, why doesn’t Trump just let us make that call for ourselves?

I believe there is plenty to see. That likely explains everything about what Trump is hiding from public view.