Donald Trump's newly launched presidential library has stated it cannot find a single direct message sent by the president from his Twitter account, despite him posting thousands of tweets during his first administration. The Trump Presidential Library's response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Post follows several lawsuits against the administration's policy memo claiming it does not need to comply with the Presidential Records Act.
The administration's response may contradict Twitter's own testimony that the president had either sent or received at least 32 messages in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election and the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. Those messages were not revealed in court documents related to special counsel Jack Smith's federal criminal case against Trump over his alleged conspiracy to overturn election results. The library, under the National Archives and Records Administration, told The Post it was “unable to locate any records related to” any DM sent by Trump during his first term.
In April, the Department of Justice unilaterally determined that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional and threatens the “constitutional independence and autonomy” of the president. A federal judge has ordered the administration to follow the law and blocked the destruction of any presidential and vice presidential records while legal battles continue. The Presidential Records Act of 1978, enacted after Richard Nixon's attempts to destroy his records, mandates that all records be preserved and eventually transferred to the National Archives at the end of a president's term.
Trump has not yet built a physical library. He told reporters earlier this year that the library would likely be a hotel in Miami, Florida, featuring a 747 Air Force One in the lobby. Proposed designs show a skyscraper with a red, white and blue spire and a gold statue of the president. Several groups have filed federal lawsuits to block the Justice Department memo, which the American Historical Association and watchdog group American Oversight condemned as an illegal pass to “destroy records of his official government conduct.” A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on May 20, quoting George Orwell's 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”
