Rachel Maddow teases Trump tax returns exclusive

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow's show on Tuesday teased a story about President Donald Trump's tax returns.

A tweet from the television personality's show's account on Tuesday afternoon said, "BREAKING: We've got Trump tax returns." Daily Beast writer David Cay Johnston touted the pending story in a follow-up message.

To date, Trump's tax returns have not been publicly released, breaking from decades of tradition in presidential politics. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump resisted calls to share his returns, citing an ongoing audit which he claimed prevented him from making the documents public.

Experts have refuted that claim, but Trump persisted, saying he would release the returns after the audit was completed, ostensibly after the election. Trump's campaign manager-turned-White-House counselor Kellyanne Conway said after the inauguration in January that Trump would not publicize his tax returns, after all.

Trump largely scoffed at the necessity of publishing his returns, often claiming that voters would learn "very little" from his taxes. Critics like 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have suggested there may be a "bombshell" hidden in Trump's taxes.

Late in the election cycle, The New York Times published several pages from Trump's 1995 returns, which showed that the then candidate had not paid little to no federal income taxes in more than a decade.