Former adviser says Trump wanted to release tax returns in 2013 to show how little he paid

Before he fought to keep his tax returns private, President Trump wanted to release them — to show the world how smart he was for lowering his taxable income, a former adviser told CNN.

Sam Nunberg, who served as Trump's political adviser from 2011 to August 2015, said that over lunch in 2013, Trump said he would be fine with his tax returns being released as part of a presidential bid. Nunberg, who did not see the returns himself, told CNN that Trump "thought he could defend the return. I inferred from the conversation that he believed that it was a lower number and he'd look savvy." Another one of Trump's former senior advisers who joined the pair for lunch corroborated Nunberg's account.

In May 2014, Trump declared on Irish television that he would "absolutely" release his tax returns if he decided to run for office, but Nunberg said that six months later, he talked him out of it. During a meeting, he told Trump that under federal election rules, all he had to do was release a broad financial statement, and could leave the tax returns under wraps. Nunberg told CNN he thought this would protect Trump from opponents who might find something explosive in the tax returns. Trump was fine with this, Nunberg added, because "he wanted to look rich rather than smart."

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Trump wouldn't announce he was entering the race for another eight months, and he went on to become the first nominee of a major party not to release their taxes in more than three decades. The president's tax returns are now the focus of several legal challenges, and Trump lost an appeal last week to keep House Democrats from subpoenaing his returns from his longtime accountant.