The public will not see Donald Trump’s White House records for years, but there is growing concern the collection will never be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies.
[…]
In the Trump White House “not only has record-keeping not been a priority, but we have multiple examples of it seeking to conceal or destroy that record”, said Richard Immerman, from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
Interesting. I had a vague memory of the “taking the Ws off the keyboards” story. Searching that got me to the link I gave. Nothing there hinted there was follow up. Hands up, I got that wrong. How annoying.
Katydidsays
@ #4, early Rush Limbaugh and his ilk were just full of stories like the stolen Ws off typewriter keys (never happened). It was a popular genre for forwarded email. Along with the “a friend was in a restaurant with flags on the table and an evul ATHEEEEST demanded they be taken down” and “a Marine was in a college class when the evul Perfeser disrespected the military” stories were ones like “When Chelsea Clinton got to the White House, she snuck out and drank” (she was 12 when she came to the White House; that never happened with her but it did with the Bush twins). It’s all other-ism (“WE wouldn’t do such things!”) and stoking up the base of idiots.
jrkrideausays
Does anyone know what is happening with the bust a Abe Lincoln?
Ridanasays
@6: It’s my understanding that it was borrowed from a museum, as Presidents do, and is being returned. Don’t have a source, since I don’t recall where I read that, sorry.
blfsays
@7, Unknown and incompetent curator for a mysterious museum, then.
Related: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/17/historians-having-to-tape-together-records-that-trump-tore-up
Pullquotes:
Don’t let’s be too smug.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/26/usa.martinkettle1
@2, The White House vandal scandal that wasn’t.
Interesting. I had a vague memory of the “taking the Ws off the keyboards” story. Searching that got me to the link I gave. Nothing there hinted there was follow up. Hands up, I got that wrong. How annoying.
@ #4, early Rush Limbaugh and his ilk were just full of stories like the stolen Ws off typewriter keys (never happened). It was a popular genre for forwarded email. Along with the “a friend was in a restaurant with flags on the table and an evul ATHEEEEST demanded they be taken down” and “a Marine was in a college class when the evul Perfeser disrespected the military” stories were ones like “When Chelsea Clinton got to the White House, she snuck out and drank” (she was 12 when she came to the White House; that never happened with her but it did with the Bush twins). It’s all other-ism (“WE wouldn’t do such things!”) and stoking up the base of idiots.
Does anyone know what is happening with the bust a Abe Lincoln?
@6: It’s my understanding that it was borrowed from a museum, as Presidents do, and is being returned. Don’t have a source, since I don’t recall where I read that, sorry.
@7, Unknown and incompetent curator for a mysterious museum, then.