More gossip from inside Donald Trump World. Stephanie Grisham, formerly Donald Trump’s White House press secretary and communications director, claims to have seen Trump show documents to Mar-a-Lago guests.
Grisham, who is not an attorney, said during an MSNBC interview last week that the allegations being made by federal prosecutors against Trump – that he mishandled classified documents – is entirely plausible.
“I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio,” Grisham said. “So he has no respect for classified information, never did.”
Donald Trump Destroying Himself?
Grisham continued, emphasizing that Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents was “offensive” to those with high-level security clearance. “I can’t stress enough how by being so loose with this stuff, he’s potentially putting people in danger,” Grisham said. “It’s vital to our country and our national security that only people with these clearances have access to any of these documents.”
I don’t want to make light of Grisham’s points. Some classified materials are indeed vital to our national security, vital to individual safety. Materials relating to nuclear infrastructure, human intelligence, et cetera, et cetera. No question. But not all of the documents that the government chooses to classify are so vital. In some cases, documents are classified out of rote habit, out of an abundance of caution. It’s a bureaucrat’s game that results in a bureaucrat’s slog.
So, at risk of sounding like a Trump apologist, I’ll say it’s entirely plausible the documents Trump was allegedly showing off around Mar-a-Lago were not all that sensitive.
The weird part about all this is that Trump could have unilaterally declassified anything he liked while he was still president. He could have waved a wand and the documents would have been declassified and he could have had them framed and hung in the Mar-a-Lago dining room. That Trump failed to do so is what makes this whole thing such a head scratcher. It was all just so completely avoidable.
In related news
Another Trump employee is in the news this morning. Walt Nauta, who served as a personal aid, or valet or something, to Trump, pleaded not guilty to federal charges for obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve the classified documents from Mar-a-Lago.
“Mr. Nauta was charged with Mr. Trump last month in a 38-count indictment with conspiracy, making false statements and withholding documents,” The New York Times reported. The indictment against Nauta “describes how Mr. Nauta repeatedly moved boxes at Mr. Trump’s request in and out of a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s private club and residence in Florida, during a critical period: the weeks between the issuance of a subpoena in May 2022 demanding the return of all classified documents in Mr. Trump’s possession and a visit to Mar-a-Lago soon after by federal prosecutors seeking to enforce the subpoena and collect any relevant materials.”
Trump base rallying
As expected, Trump’s base has rallied around their beleaguered demagogue in the weeks since the indictment. Donations have been pouring in; the average donation being around $34, indicating that most of Trump’s supporters are everyday citizens.
The simple fact is that the indictments play into Trump’s longstanding narrative: that the federal government is out to get him because he’s a disruptor, sent to Washington by the common man to drain the swamp.
Expect Trump to ride the indictments all the way to the GOP nomination. But can he win the general election?
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
From 19FortyFive
Donald Trump Just Proved How Stupid He Is
