That’s quite a document dump!
Former President Donald Trump reportedly clogged White House toilets by flushing wads of paper that could have included potentially damaging government documents, another sign of his lack of respect for preserving records.
Quoting unnamed aides, reporter Maggie Haberman of The New York Times unearthed the detail in her new investigative book, “Confidence Man,” which traces Trump’s history from his childhood to his White House reign and beyond.
“Staff believed Trump had flushed material he’d ripped into pieces,” Haberman said in a tweet.
Trump quickly denied the flushing report as “categorically untrue.”
“Another fake story, that I flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet, is categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book,” he wrote in an email statement.
The story dovetails with new reports that Trump regularly tore up government documents in violation of the Presidential Records Act, which specifically mandates that they be kept for the historical record.
When he left the White House, Trump also took several boxes of presidential records, including his infamous “love letters” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The National Archives has asked the Justice Department to determine if any laws were broken.
Trump also denied any wrongdoing in connection with that incident.
“The papers were given easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis,” he said in the statement.
The toilet-gate revelation by Haberman in the forthcoming book may shed light on Trump’s known obsession with low-flow toilets and other seemingly innocuous plumbing features designed to save water.
Even Trump’s staunchest allies were baffled by his repeated rants about the issue at White House events that were supposed to be focused on serious issues like the economy.
“People are flushing the toilet like 10, 15 times,” he said at a small-business forum. “They end up using more water.”
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