What New FBI Photos of Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago Tell Us About Trump
Autocrats do not recognize any boundaries between public and public: everything, including classified documents, is theirs to possess and exploit
What do you think and feel when you look at this photograph of classified documents in a storage room in Donald Trump’s private residence, Mar-a Lago? In the summer of 2022, as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s federal case against Trump for mishandling of records, we had seen boxes of documents in the bathroom and elsewhere in that Florida mansion.
Given that Mar-a-Lago served as the so-called “Winter White House” and hosted heads of state and other foreign dignitaries, this was a national security disaster. Trump was charged with 40 counts, including unlawful retention of national defense information, and pleaded not guilty.
Now another trove of photographs, which were taken by the FBI during that 2022 search, have been made public as part of a new filing by Smith (all photographs in this post come from the CBS article on these developments in the case). These photos speak volumes about how Trump saw his power and role as president.
Authoritarian leaders have an entirely proprietary view of governance. They don't recognize boundaries between public and private. They believe that as head of state it is their right to possess and exploit for personal benefit anything in the nation, from natural resources to economic assets to information.
A sense of chaos and total disregard for national security pervade the storage room, shown below in another view. Note that the jackets are carefully covered with plastic, as is a picture, and the guitar has a sturdy padded case.
It is only the documents that are treated like junk: they are exposed to dirt, dust, and anyone with a smartphone camera. Enter to get a spare jacket for the club (Mar-a-Lago has a dress code), and exit with classified documents.
A paper on the psychology of autocrats could be written on the basis of the next photo. Trump personality cult artifacts (MAGA hats about Trump saving America, the American flag tellingly placed underneath them, and a crude painting of Trump as a kind of American Viking God) mingle with groceries (Diet Coke), shirts and ties, and classified documents that are U.S. government property.
I have worked in public archives in half a dozen countries, and they all observe strict protocols about the handling of documents. It is not only due to the possibility of theft, but to protect the documents from damage. As a historian, this negligence is hard to see.
As a scholar who has learned to think like an autocrat, though, it makes perfect sense. Trump’s claim on those records, his storage of them in his personal residence, and the mix of sensitive documents and personal effects perfectly sums up this proprietary vision of power. They are all HIS, to do with them what he pleases.
The U.S. presidency was always just a means to an end for Trump, who had autocratic, not democratic, goals for his time in the White House. Turning public office into a vehicle for private enrichment and making deals with others of his tribe were top priorities. "Dictators? It's OK. Come on in. Whatever's good for America," Trump declared in 2019, his intended audience of foreign autocrats likely getting the message.
It’s public knowledge now that China, Saudi Arabia, and other autocracies funneled more than $7 million to Trump’s businesses while he was in office. Yet there are myriad other ways to earn money, and information is arguably the most valuable currency in the autocrat world. Just ask Trump’s idol Vladimir Putin, a former intelligence official, who has perfected practices of kompromat.
That’s why the biggest nightmare, from a national security perspective, is not this display of mishandled documents, but what might not be present, such as documents that could have traveled from Washington D.C. to Mar-a-Lago before finding a new home with private individuals or foreign governments.
As I wrote in my initial reflections on this sordid matter in 2022, “Forced out of the White House after his coup attempt failed, beset by financial worries and multiple investigations, how could Trump fail to cast his greedy eyes on the vast store of classified information available to him?”
Total disrespect for the country and for national security, but what we really need to know (well maybe not us plebes, but surely the government) is what did he sell and to whom did he sell it? The Boy Blunder didn't get $2B for nothing and that might be too steep a payoff just for covering up the Khashoggi murder.
I fervently hope Trump eventually faces justice for his treasonous actions.