President Trump’s tax returns have been eluding the eyes of the public for a long time now, with few instances popping up where anyone was able to lay eyes on the forbidden fruit.

But, as The Washington Post reported Monday, a federal appeals court may have gotten us one step closer to seeing some of Trump’s tax returns.

The court unanimously rejected Trump’s effort to block New York grand jury subpoenas for his tax returns, which, as the Post reported, may set up another round of appeals from the Trump camp.

Regardless, we at The Daily Eastern News think that it is about time Trump’s tax returns come to light.

A tradition since Richard Nixon’s time in office, among presidents and presidential candidates, is to voluntarily show the public their tax returns, according to NPR.

Among the other things Trump has disrupted, in regards to political and presidential tradition, he has consistently refused to release or block any release of his returns.

But, as Nixon stated, according to NPR, people deserve to know whether or not their president is a crook. 

In this case, we deserve to know if Trump is a “crook.”

Possibly now more than ever, as Trump’s sneaky actions in withholding aid from Ukraine allegedly in exchange for dirt on Hunter Biden, we deserve to know the extent of what Trump is trying to hide.

In this particular case, Trump’s attorneys have argued that as president, he is immune from investigation and prosecution. 

But the president should not be exempt from investigation, especially if there is reason to believe he is doing criminal or unethical things.

The case in which the court made this ruling is between Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars.

The court, in its ruling, said that his tax returns being released would likely not impair his ability to fulfill his duties of the office.

The court is correct in this statement, as the only way releasing tax returns would affect his performance is if Trump were to let it get to his head.

Even though the court blocked Trump’s effort this time, the Post reported that Trump intends to take the case to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, we hope, would do the right thing and allow the prosecutors to get ahold of Trump’s tax returns.

Other presidents and presidential candidates have voluntarily shown their tax returns, in some form, so Trump’s case is not special or unique enough to warrant the returns from being kept a secret.

Trump needs to realize that this is a battle he should not have tried to fight in the first place, and he needs to own up to whatever the reason is that he is still trying to keep his tax returns secret.

The Editorial Staff can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].