In the middle of the presidential campaign in the United States, Joe Biden is playing the transparency card. The US president made his tax return public on Monday, an American tradition that was temporarily interrupted under his predecessor in the White House, billionaire tycoon Donald Trump.
An annual custom, this non-obligatory practice is supposed to maintain the confidence of citizens in their political leaders. Other political figures engage in it as well as candidates in local and national elections.
Revenues up more than 6%
According to their statement, the Bidens received $619,976 in 2023, most of which comes from the president’s $400,000 salary and his wife Jill Biden’s $85,985 compensation for her teaching job in Virginia, near the capital Washington. These revenues are up compared to previous years: nearly $580,000 in 2022 and around 610,000 in 2021.
“President Biden believes that all tenants of the Oval Office must be open and honest with the American people,” the White House said. “The long tradition of annually releasing presidents’ tax returns must continue without interruption,” she added, a thinly veiled reference to the Trump era.
Trump in reverse to his predecessors
A famous business and media man before becoming the idol of the American right, Donald Trump chose not to follow the tradition of transparency maintained by other presidents, Democrats and Republicans alike. As a candidate and then as president between 2017 and 2021, he refused to make his tax return public.
But several of his statements were ultimately released after a battle led by Democrats in Congress. And it emerged that, for several years, Donald Trump paid virtually no income tax, due to his business losses.