Trump White House will not make visitor logs public, break from Obama policy

By Ayesha Rascoe

 

U.S. President Donald Trump salutes a Marine as he walks from Marine One upon his return to the White House in Washington, U.S., April 9, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/Files

 

PALM BEACH, FLA. (Reuters) - The Trump administration will not make public White House visitor logs, the records that detail who has visited President Donald Trump and his staff on official business, his office confirmed, in a departure from a practice that was established under former President Barack Obama.

 

White House Communications Director Michael Dubke said in a statement on Friday that "the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually" was the reason for keeping the records secret.

 

Transparency advocates had praised Obama's decision to release the logs, although his administration argued the disclosure was not required by law but instead was voluntary. As a result, Obama's team frequently redacted names from the list of visitors that were released to the public, including celebrities and donors who were sighted on the White House grounds.

 

The logs offer the most comprehensive look at who has access to the president and his team. Examining the logs provides insight into which interests are lobbying the White House and who may have more influence in the administration. Trump has continued the Obama policy of not allowing administration staffers to become lobbyists after leaving their government job, a rule that carries no enforcement mechanism and that they have already waived for one staffer.

 

The announcement that the logs would remain secret quickly drew criticism from watchdog groups.

 

"Elected officials work for the people and we deserve to see government business conducted in transparent daylight," Faiz Shakir, political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "The only reasonable conclusion is to believe the Trump administration has many things it is trying to hide."During the Obama administration, conservative watchdog groups sued the Secret Service, which maintains the records, in an attempt to make unredacted copies publicly available. After Trump took office, a liberal watchdog group has taken over the fight, filing a lawsuit on Monday demanding the records.

 

Separately, Democrats in Congress have filed legislation to force the administration to release visitor logs from Mar-A-Largo, the president's Palm Beach estate where he has spent most weekends since becoming president. The legislation is unlikely to gain any traction because Republicans control the legislative body.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-15

 

One more drain of the swamp plugged up.  

51 minutes ago, kowpot said:

And what he's up to is none of your business, citizen.

4 hours ago, tomwct said:

Good Idea! The left wing media wants to destroy this president, so don't give them any possible ammunition. Keep up the good work President Trump.

Nuts. This from president who proclaimed in inaugural speech he was "returning the power to the American people". Unless they want to know what he is up to. Left wing media guilty of what? Showing his speeches, his hypocrisy? No comment is needed from media, just show what Trump says and does, and hope people still smart enough to do the math

Hide the swamp!

 

I wish I had thought of that but I lifted it from Twitter.

5 hours ago, tomwct said:

Good Idea! The left wing media wants to destroy this president, so don't give them any possible ammunition. Keep up the good work President Trump.

What?  So, this is fake news and just the product of the left-wing media to destroy Trump?

 

Transparency in government is the hallmark of a true representative government. Note how repressive totalitarian regimes conduct business in secret and try to control the media--sound like someone you know who is supposed to be the leader of the free world? 

 

Quote:
 

Harming trust in the institution of the Presidency is the Trumps' Office intent. Who does it serve?

(the above image is obviously a parody but illustrates a point)
 

 

If you got nothing to hide, why does it have to be secret? ?

Maybe Trump thinks invisibility and transparency are the same thing?

A certain right-wing cable station in the US got a lot mileage out of examining the WH visitor log while Obama was president: "So-and-so visited the WH three times in the past month, what is going on with that?" followed by tinfoilhat-quality speculation.  Imagine if Obama made the visitor log private, what sort of claptrap they would have spewed.

 

 

19 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually" was the reason for keeping the records secret.

This wasn't the first reason given.

Originally publication of the log was deemed a "waste of taxpayer money. Ending it would save $70,000 by 2020" -  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/us/politics/visitor-log-white-house-trump.html?_r=0

 

But then Americans might start to think that Trump's trips out of the White House over his first 85 days in office that already exceeds eight years of Obama trips was also waste of taxpayer money. Better to lose the reference to waste.

I love when he does stuff like this.  Who cares who visits the Whitehouse and who's going to check the logs anyway?  I think he does it just to infuriate the liberal nut-jobs.

7 hours ago, bendejo said:

A certain right-wing cable station in the US got a lot mileage out of examining the WH visitor log while Obama was president: "So-and-so visited the WH three times in the past month, what is going on with that?" followed by tinfoilhat-quality speculation.  Imagine if Obama made the visitor log private, what sort of claptrap they would have spewed.

 

 

Any names that the Obama administration didn't want to be public, were redacted anyway. So, so much for transparency.

All presidents, the first ladies etc. host loads of people at The White House. This has been happening for decades.  The policy of redaction as indicated above I accurate, whether for reasons of national security or simply at the discretion of The First Family.  So, leaving the whole list blank makes little, or no, difference.

Did anybody here read the part where Obama redacted names from the list frequently including donors. Thats far from transparency isn't it.

Did anyone also get the fact that Obama was the 1st and only president to "pretend" to release the visitors logs to the public in the history of the presidency?