Former White House officials describe Trump's habit of ripping up documents and haphazard record-keeping
CNN
Former President Donald Trump would routinely rip up documents, drafts and reading materials, and he took several boxes to Mar-a-Lago when he relocated to Florida after leaving the White House -- raising concerns about his preservation of presidential records as required by federal law.
Three former White House officials told CNN they saw Trump, on numerous occasions, manually destroy papers he was no longer interested in or had finished reviewing -- a practice that made it difficult for White House staff secretaries to preserve presidential records. Those officials said the former President sorted through file boxes in a rather methodical way -- tearing up newspaper clippings or drafts of tweets that he had rejected and tossing them to the floor, or stacking papers he wished to hang on to in a disorderly stack atop his desk.
They said Trump, who was often trailed by aides lugging file boxes as he boarded Marine One for day trips or overseas visits, ignored pleas to end the destructive habit. "The Boxes," as they were colloquially known among senior staff, contained all the save-for-later items that Trump would spend long flights going through: articles that he wanted to scribble Sharpie messages on before mailing them off to close friends; gossipy stories about West Wing drama that he would hate-read as he sought to identify leakers; and, occasionally, important memos on any number of policy topics or budding crises.
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