Has anyone ever noticed that after a president leaves office, funds are reserved for a library that will hold all papers related to the former president's time in office? Similar libraries exist for notable politicians from both parties whose papers are worthy of cataloging and being made available to the public for research.
Presidential papers are considered public property under Federal Law and almost all former presidents have chosen sites where their non-classified records are available for research. For example, former President Obama chose to have his presidential library in Chicago, Il. President Clinton chose to have his presidential library in Little Rock, AR. However, notably absent from this list of former presidents having publicly accessable research centers is former President Trump. If one accesses the government website for his library, it is merely a spaceholder. No building yet extsts at this time, nor it it likely to exist any time soon.
Why is this important?
Unlike our other former presidents, Trump is not known for having things put down on paper for future reference. Like all grifters, he knows that any and all forensic evidence can and will be used against him in a court of law. And that's what's happening right now in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington, DC. with Trump's 4 indictments.
Do I think Trump will be re-elected? The odds against it aren't overwhelming. There are way too many followers in his cult who act as if he's a messenger sent by god. (As for me, Jake and Elwood Blues were the only characters I know who were on a mission from god. But I digress.) Given a choice of rational understanding and irrational faith, irrationality wins every time. This is why cults are dangerous - they can cause a lot of trouble for non-believers.
Right now, the Florida case against Trump has to be litigated. He claimed that all of the presidential papers are his property and not public property as his initial defense. According to the presidential records act, this is a bogus claim. He claimed to have declassified the classified documents, all without proof. Again, this is a bogus claim. But what is most notable here is that none of the unclassified presidential papers would be in a publically accessible library, given Trump's actions.
So what is available so far?
If one examines the Research page on Trump's presidential records website, the two key resources are his archived websites and his archived social media. There are no books or letters to be found. This is what one would expect from a mob boss and not a president. It takes dogged prosecutors to do the research needed to convict a mob boss, and the same is needed to convict a grifting ex-president. Yet, like mob bosses, it will be hard to obtain a conviction, as there is little recorded evidence.
I expect that unlike all other presidents, that Trump's presidential library will end up being the side of a tiny book library found on Amazon for $249.95 (at time of writing). At least, someone has taken the time to archive all of his tweets and websites.
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