Don’t be surprised if you see a giant inflatable chicken pop up in a city near you this Saturday. They’ll be hard to miss, with their golden hairdos and all.
In what could be the largest public protest since the Women’s March in January, thousands of demonstrators plan to march in more than 190 cities across the country on Saturday, demanding that President Trump release his tax returns.
Their mascot is an inflatable chicken, the idea being that “Trump is too chicken to release his taxes,” as Anna Chu, one of the March’s Washington, D.C., organizers, has said.
The so-called Tax March falls on April 15, the nation’s traditional deadline for submitting tax returns. Facebook pages for the demonstrations already show about 9,700 protestors plan to attend the march from the Capitol to the Mall in Washington, with another 15,000 expected to show up to New York City’s Bryant Park, and 22,000 marching from Los Angeles’ Pershing Square to City Hall.
Demonstrations are also planned in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Phoenix.
The idea sprung up from tweets by a law professor and a comedian back in January, The Guardian reports. A day after participating in a Women’s March in Boston, Jennifer Taub saw the video of White House advisor Kellyanne Conway declaring Trump would not release his tax returns because voters “didn’t care.”
Taub, a law professor at Vermont Law School, sent off what she calls an “impulsive” tweet, proposing a protest on April 15. Little did she know the idea would quickly gain traction.
A few hours later, comedian Frank Lesser tweeted the same idea. The two then started working together to formally organize the event. Within a few days, they had an official poster and website, and started organizing local events via Facebook.
Let's plan a nationwide #DivestDonald and #showusyourtaxes protest for Saturday, April 15 https://t.co/Wo9DY9eEGP
— Jennifer Taub (@jentaub) January 22, 2017
Trump claims no one cares about his taxes. The next mass protest should be on Tax Day to prove him wrong.
— Frank Lesser (@sadmonsters) January 22, 2017
In an interview with The Washington Post, Taub said she doesn’t expect the president to release his tax returns as a result of the march. But she does hope a large turnout will influence state lawmakers to pass laws forcing elected officials to release their returns.
“One way or another, we will see his tax returns, I believe,” Taub told the Post.
Also, just to be clear: Although tax day does typically fall on April 15 in the U.S., procrastinators have three extra days this year. The deadline lands on Tuesday, April 18.
