Sunday, July 29, 2018

White House will stop transcribing conversations between Trump and foreign leaders

https://thinkprogress.org/white-house-not-publishing-call-summaries-trump-foreign-leaders-a1d185bab7d4/
"Abandoning readouts is the latest in a line of unnecessary steps the White House has taken to reduce transparency since Trump was elected. President Donald Trump has reportedly taken multiple personal calls with world leaders that even his closest staffers didn’t know about. The White House has also advocated to keep its visitor logs private, ending a longstanding tradition among past administrations. Last year, the White House was forced to release some of those logs, revealing who had access to the president. The logs included visits from lobbyists and members of the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Council on Environmental Quality. Additionally, Trump has not held a solo press conference in over 18 months and is the first U.S. president in decades to not release his tax returns, which would provide insight into how he is profiting off the presidency."