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Trump Administration Kills Open.Gov, Will Not Release White House Visitor Logs (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: It will never be said that the Trump presidency began with a presumption of openness. His pre-election refusal to release his tax returns set a bit of precedent in that regard. The immediate post-election muffling of government agency social media accounts made the administration's opacity goals um clearer. So, in an unsurprising move, the Trump administration will be doing the opposite of the Obama administration. The American public will no longer have the privilege of keeping tabs on White House visitors. TIME reports: "The Trump Administration will not disclose logs of those who visit the White House complex, breaking with his predecessor, the White House announced Friday. White House communications director Michael Dubke said the decision to reverse the Obama-era policy was due to 'the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.' Instead, the Trump Administration is relying on a federal court ruling that most of the logs are 'presidential records' and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act." So, to further distance himself from the people he serves (and the people who elected him), Trump and his administration have shut down the transparency portal put in place by the previous Commander-in-Chief: "White House officials said the Administration is ending the contract for Open.gov, the Obama-era site that hosted the visitor records along with staff financial disclosures, salaries, and appointments. An official said it would save $70,000 through 2020 and that the removed disclosures, salaries and appointments would be integrated into WhiteHouse.gov in the coming months."
I'd rather save money then have the illusion of transparency.
Does whining about Trump on Slashdot make you feel better?
Yep. Obama pretended to be open but ran one of the least transparent administrations in the history of the United States.
It is vital to national security that these logs be kept secret of a limited time. Trump is returning America to the greatness we once knew and part of that is making it possible for people to meet with the President without the left-wing media attacking him over it. Why do you think he has to do most of his business at Mar-A-Lago right now?
It's okay when my team does it!
"Obummer smoked in secret, I respect Trump as Arsonist-in-Chief so long as he's upfront about it." - Trump supporter spinning in his future grave rhetorically.
Here's a thought experiment, is there anything that you WOULDN'T apologize for Trump doing with some shallow rationalized pseudo-justification?
Not really, although I can appreciate why you would only give your support to Trump anonymously.
If you can respect it, you have serious fucking issues.
Just before Racheal Maddow Released Trumps' tax return for him, Trump himself released one year of taxes - in which Trump payed over *$30 million*. IN income tax. For one year. So what is going to be exciting about the other years, finding out that every year he pays ~30 million in personal income taxes?
In just one year Trump is paying more in tax than the entire population of Slashdot will over a lifetime.
I could see some reason to want to see Trump's taxes before anything was released, but now people who call to see more of what we already know just look like total goobers. It's like if there were marches after Al Capones Vault was opened demanding they go back in and look at all the bricks. You are literally a brick-chaser.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley