Donald Trump was never one for following protocol. In fact, he seemed to delight in flouting the very rules and regulations that guided his predecessors throughout their time in office. That applied to the retention of his presidential records.
According to a new report from the Washington Post, presidential records including “love letters” from Kim Jong-un had to be retrieved from Mar-a-Lago after Trump “improperly removed” them from the White House.
According to the Post, advisers to the former president “denied any nefarious intent and said the boxes contained mementos, gifts, letters from world leaders and other correspondence.
“The items included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which Trump once described as ‘love letters’, as well as a letter left for his successor by Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the contents.”
The Archives and a Trump spokesman did not comment. The records were returned to the National Archives in January, the Post said.
Trump’s treatment of White House records has been under the spotlight recently, as a House investigation continues into the January 6 insurrection he incited.
Trump went to the supreme court but failed to stop records relevant to January 6 being transferred to the House committee. Some records the panel obtained were reportedly ripped up and taped back together – according to Trump’s widely reported practice.
Lindsay Chervinski, a presidential historian, told the Post: “The only way that a president can really be held accountable long term is to preserve a record about who said what, who did what, what policies were encouraged or adopted, and that is such an important part of the long-term scope of accountability – beyond just elections and campaigns.”
Lack of access to documents about issues of national security could “pose a real concern if the next administration is flying blind without that information”, Chervinski said.
Trump’s correspondence with Kim, during attempts to negotiate with the North Korean leader, was the subject of widespread conjecture – and ridicule.
In September 2018, Trump told a rally in West Virginia: “We fell in love. No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters.”
The Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward obtained 25 such letters for his second book on the Trump White House, Rage. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, described “an extraordinary diplomatic minuet”.
On Monday, Stephanie Murphy, a Florida Democrat who sits on the 6 January committee, told the Post of Trump’s handling of records: “That they didn’t follow rules is not a shock. As for how this development relates to the committee’s work, we have different sources and methods for obtaining documents and information that we are seeking.”
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