Is President Trump facing a “second term curse”?
History shows that past presidents have faced the curse of second terms. Is President Trump facing the same curse? USA TODAY’s Susan Page analyzes this.
President Donald Trump, along with his two sons and the Trump Organization, filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department on January 29, accusing them of leaking his tax returns to “left-wing newspapers.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, Florida, alleges that the IRS and Treasury failed in their duty to “protect and secure” confidential tax returns in 2019 and 2020 and to prevent their “unlawful” disclosure by former IRS employee Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn.
Trump’s sons Donald Jr., who is executive vice president of the Trump Organization, and Eric are also named as plaintiffs.
“From May 2019 until at least September 2020, former IRS employee Charles “Chaz” Littlejohn, who was co-employed with the IRS and/or one of its contractors, illegally gained access and disclosed plaintiffs’ tax returns and return information to the New York Times, ProPublica, and other left-leaning media outlets,” the complaint alleges.
Littlejohn, who was sentenced in January 2024, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for the unauthorized disclosure of thousands of tax returns.
The complaint alleges that Mr. Littlejohn unlawfully disclosed his tax returns and related information to The New York Times and ProPublica, causing “reputational and economic harm” to the plaintiffs and “adversely impacting President Trump’s support among voters in the 2020 presidential election.”
Trump broke decades of precedent by refusing to release his tax returns during his 2016 campaign, his first presidential term and his 2024 campaign, citing an ongoing Internal Revenue Service audit.
President Trump has sued a variety of media companies over the past year, including The New York Times, Dow Jones & Co., News Corp., ABC News and CBS.
