# Why is trump keeping classified documents-- for what purpose does he want them? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [August 29, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526 "2022-08-29T13:19:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/61 "2022-08-29T21:26:28Z")
Former president Cheat To Win was holding the documents as leverage. Captain Cheat And Lie felt that they would work in his favor somehow. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/62 "2022-08-29T22:50:16Z")
You’re correct, but 16 conversations between Trump and Putin sure seems like a lot of smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/63 "2022-08-29T23:10:08Z")
As far as I can tell, Trump doesn’t have a notion of “other people’s stuff” at all. There is stuff that is in his possession, and stuff temporarily out of his possession, but the idea of a thing “belonging” to someone other than him is simply a non-concept; an oxymoron. So, it’s not laziness, any more than it’s laziness if someone kept asking me to give them my car, and I kept blowing them off. That he occasionally _gives in_ is laziness–eventually it becomes a lot of work to keep saying no. It’s nothing to do with being the president, per-se. The presidency just gave him access to more stuff, like if a bank vault had been left open and he went in and cleared it out. But it was still his regardless, because everything is his. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/64 "2022-08-29T23:31:04Z")
> [@Dobbs](#): > > But does anyone know for sure that there was, in fact, a SCIF at MaL? It has been reported on extensively. > **[Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Has a Secure Room? Great! Then Use It](https://www.wired.com/2017/02/trump-north-korea-scif/)** > > A recent public display of high-level diplomacy at the president's resort should have happened in a SCIF instead. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-maralago/trump-handling-of-security-information-at-mar-a-lago-queried-by-house-panel-idUSKBN15T2Y2](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-maralago/trump-handling-of-security-information-at-mar-a-lago-queried-by-house-panel-idUSKBN15T2Y2) > **[Trump in Palm Beach: Mar-a-Lago’s SCIF, JFK’s bunker and keeping national...](https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/05/trump-in-palm-beach-mar-a-lagos-scif-jfks-bunker-and-keeping-national-security-secure/2359130007/)** > > The recent “storming” of a Capitol Hill hearing where sensitive information was to be presented raised awareness of secure rooms used by federal officials. There’s such a SCIF at Mar-a-Lago. > **[How secure is Mar-a-Lago?](https://www.kxxv.com/news/national/recent-trespassing-incidents-raise-questions-about-security-at-mar-a-lago)** > > Security at Mar-a-Lago has been in the spotlight after two Chinese nationals were arrested in separate incidents this year – one in March and another in December. > **[Some Trump records taken to Mar-a-Lago clearly marked as classified,...](https://web.archive.org/web/20220211142142/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/10/trump-records-classified/)** > > The existence of documents officially labeled as classified in the trove — which has not previously been reported — raises new questions about why the materials were taken out of the White House. [https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/14/politics/trump-documents-mar-a-lago/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/14/politics/trump-documents-mar-a-lago/index.html) Reportedly he had it at Mar-a-Lago as far back as 2017. Denying its existence is going a bit into conspiracy theory territory. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/65 "2022-08-30T01:06:45Z")
Trump is seven years old, going on seventy-seven. The “gee-whiz-neato” concept should be explored. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/66 "2022-08-30T01:12:29Z")
Other way around. He’s 77 going on 7. I think it woudl be more fitting if he were 66 going on 6. What astonishes me is how that sieve he calls a home/resort got listed as a secure facility in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/67 "2022-08-30T01:34:50Z")
He’s 77 going on four. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/68 "2022-08-30T02:36:20Z")
I know, but that didn’t work to set up the “666” joke. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/69 "2022-08-30T06:10:03Z")
> **[Michael Cohen says Trump may have already given away top-secret information...](https://news.yahoo.com/michael-cohen-says-trump-may-040256904.html)** > > "Donald doesn't take boxes of material around the world for no reason at all. He took it for nefarious reasons," Cohen said in a TikTok on Monday. Pretty much everything Michael Cohen says can be dismissed as self-promotional babbling, but he does bring attention to something that was buried in a WaPo article and hasn’t attracted much commentary: These boxes of documents were effectively Trump’s “filing system,” just disorganized collections that they’d “rummage through” when they needed something specific. The boxes would travel with Trump, unsorted and barely secured, including on foreign trips. Cohen wildly speculates that the docs were for sale on these trips, but to my mind this better supports the alternative concept explored in this thread: “the docs are mine, I put them in these boxes because I needed them, and you can’t have them.” They were his records, so obviously and tautologically they’re his records. At least, that’s sufficient for the initial situation. The evidence that the boxes were re-examined and re-sorted prior to the first return to the archives suggests something else. (And the idea that these boxes traveled from hotel room to hotel room overseas is another horrifying subject entirely, but outside the scope of this thread.) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/70 "2022-08-30T06:32:15Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > That said, I assume he’s been showing them around, preening like a shithead, and other nefarious actors in the notoriously porous M-a-L may have noticed their value and taken a peek. But not because T was consciously selling for profit. I disagree. Trump has shown a single-minded attempt to profit monetarily from the presidency since the day he took office (see emoluments). While he may not have know the value of anything he was absconding with he was will to grab boxes of documents and figure out their worth later. What other reason would such a man want them for? He certainly has no interest in reading them. He does not intend them for his library (will he even have one?). I cannot see how he can impress guests by taking them to the basement to show them boxes he says has something interesting in them. I can only think he meant to make money from them even if he was unclear how that would work when he took them. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/71 "2022-08-30T12:07:35Z")
It’s ironic that that the WH staff reportedly had trouble getting Trump to read the daily Presidential briefing. Yet he hangs onto to documents he never wanted to see. I could understand a few declassified pages framed on the wall at Mar-a-Lago. _Hey look what I have_. There’s no rational reason to keep dozens of boxes. Unless he planned to sell them. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/72 "2022-08-30T12:12:29Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > He does not intend them for his library (will he even have one?). Ha, I was going to include that (sarcastically) as a 6th reason in my OP bullet point list. Good enough reason to post this again, I think. The creator has added to it since I last checked out the site (Grift Shop, hehe): > **[Donald J. Trump Presidential Library](https://djtrumplibrary.com/)** > > Presidential Library for the 45th President of the United States ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/73 "2022-08-30T12:19:39Z")
> [@solost](#): > > > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > > He does not intend them for his library (will he even have one?). > > Ha, I was going to include that (sarcastically) as a 6th reason in my OP bullet point list. > > Good enough reason to post this again, I think. The creator has added to it since I last checked out the site (Grift Shop, hehe): - > > [https://djtrumplibrary.com/](https://djtrumplibrary.com/) I heard it hadn’t opened yet because the book they ordered hasn’t been delivered. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/74 "2022-08-30T17:45:24Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > What astonishes me is how that sieve he calls a home/resort got listed as a secure facility in the first place. The actual SCIF would have probably just been one room, or a self-contained suite of rooms, that had been upgraded to meet the security requirements. I’m pretty sure the people doing that work, and approving it for use, knew their jobs a lot better than the typical Trump sycophants. The real problem was Trump becoming president in the first place. No matter how good your systems and policies are, if they’re being overseen by an idiot with a vested interest in not following the rules, you’re going to have problems. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/75 "2022-08-30T17:46:55Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > No matter how good your systems and policies are, if they’re being overseen by an idiot with a vested interest in not following the rules, you’re going to have problems. If your system is foolproof, someone will bring a bigger fool. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/76 "2022-08-30T21:07:11Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Sorry if this has already been posted: As much as I hate to defend Trump, the _Daily Beast_ article you linked to in your subsequent post seems to indicate that Trump wanted to identify people to replace ODNI, presumably looking them over in search of Trump-friendly sycophants. _Not_ to compile a list of covert operatives to sell to Putin so he could bump them off. The use here of the term “top _spies_” is misleading; it evokes cloak and dagger secret agents. “Senior ODNI employees” would be more accurate. I know it’s common usage to refer to the DNI as the nation’s “head spy” or “top spy”. But there’s less potential for confusion there: we know that the DNI ain’t Maxwell Smart. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/77 "2022-08-30T21:39:26Z")
Yeah, I acknowledged as much in a subsequent post, but Trump did talk to Putin 16 times while president, that is a lot of conversations. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/78 "2022-08-30T21:56:36Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Trump did talk to Putin 16 times while president, that is a lot of conversations. Without knowing how many times he called other foreign leaders, that doesn’t really mean anything. One might also note that he’s accused of doing things like calling Raffensperger a handful of times to get him to change the vote, within the space of a week or two, still calling congressmen and other people to convince them to change the vote even now, two years later, etc. Trump is an idiot but there are some reasons for his ability to accomplish the things that he has accomplished. One of those things is incessant whininess and a lack of shame in calling people over and over and over again to harass them for what he wants. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/79 "2022-08-30T22:02:21Z")
We don’t know a lot about those conversations. It’s obvious why Trump has those documents. The information that President Trump has deliberately sought to conceal information on his conversations with Vladimir Putin is a major departure from previous practices. We already knew that President Trump met one-one one with Putin in Helsinki in July, without aides or note-takers present and accompanied only by his interpreter. We also knew that Trump had an earlier, initially undisclosed [hour-long conversation] with Putin at the 2017 Group of 20 meetings in Hamburg, with only the Russian translator present. At another meeting between Trump and Putin in Hamburg, only Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was present from the U.S. side. We now know that Trump took possession of the translator’s notes from that meeting, and told the translator not to discuss what had happened with other people in the administration. Here’s why this hurts other administration officials. > **[Analysis | It’s a big deal that Trump didn’t allow notes on his meetings with...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/07/19/there-are-no-notes-on-trumps-meeting-with-putin-thats-a-big-deal/)** > > Without detailed notes, no one can know who promised what to whom. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526/80 "2022-08-30T22:52:58Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > We don’t know a lot about those conversations. I didn’t say otherwise. I said that the number “16” is meaningless without a point of comparison. My oven gets a bit toasty to crawl in for my taste but, on the scale of the universe, it’s really a pretty mild temperature. Minus a frame of reference, these numbers aren’t small nor big, they’re just numbers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trump-keeping-classified-documents-for-what-purpose-does-he-want-them/970526.md?page=5)