RACHEL STRIKES OUT – AT 8:54 A.M. ET:  There was this YUGE buildup for Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show last night.  It had been announced that Rachel had President Trump's tax returns.  OHMEGOD!

This was it.  D-Day.  Lawrence O'Donnell, another MSNBC "host," proclaimed, "This is the night we've been waiting for."  Even Putin must have tuned in.  And Queen Elizabeth.

And it was nothing.  From Fox: 

Hours after a much-touted MSNBC “scoop” revealed part of President Trump's 2005 tax returns -- and in the process, undermined the left's speculation that he was a tax dodger -- the commander-in-chief fired back Wednesday morning with another volley of barb-laden tweets.

Though Trump was set to hit the road for a stop in Detroit and a rally in Tennessee on Wednesday, he kicked off his travel with a victory lap on Twitter after DCReport.org reporter David Cay Johnston revealed 2005 Trump tax documents to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Johnston said he found the president’s 1040 form “in the mail,” a story Trump wasn’t buying as he took aim at Maddow’s parent network.

“Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, ‘went to his mailbox’ and found my tax returns? @NBCNews FAKE NEWS!” Trump tweeted.

And...

The tax documents, which showed Trump made $153 million in 2005 and paid $36.5 million in income taxes, did not exactly amount to a bombshell. His effective rate was close to 25 percent. It appeared so favorable to the president that Johnston -- a longtime reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 -- speculated to Maddow it was possible “Donald sent this to me.”

COMMENT:  A major nothingburger.  We learned that Trump is a rich guy and that he pays a ton of taxes.  Oh, and the only "tax documents" Maddow could produce were two pages of Trump's 1040 form.

Score this one for the president.

March 15,  2017