A Whitehouse.gov petition calling for President Donald Trump to immediately release his tax returns has surpassed the 100,000-signature threshold in under a day, garnering a Whitehouse response.
It’s not clear that the current administration intends to follow the practice established under Former President Barack Obama , of accepting petitions online, reviewing and responding to them should they reach a threshold of 100,000 signatures and meet other terms and conditions. TechCrunch has reached out to the Whitehouse seeking information about any planned changes to the handling of petitions by the Trump administration.
The petition page on Whitehouse.gov was created under the Obama administration. It survived the transition from the Obama to the Trump administration, unlike webpages showing presidential support for US military families, the LGBT community and problem solving around climate change.
Entrepreneur and diversity advocate, Anil Dash, currently the CEO of Fog Creek Software, authored and promoted the petition across social media on the afternoon of Trump’s inauguration ceremony, Friday January 20th. Dash tells TechCrunch that the petition, entitled “Immediately release Donald Trump’s full tax returns, with all information needed to verify emoluments cause compliance,” was getting approximately 800 signatures per minute until it approached 30,000 signatures.
