The Trump toilet photos are real.
No, this unfortunately (?) has nothing to do with the fabled pee tape. Rather, back in February, Axios published an excerpt from New York Times senior political reporter Maggie Haberman’s book, Confidence Man, that claimed “while President Trump was in office, staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet — and believed the president had flushed pieces of paper.”
Trump denied the report, calling it a “fake story.” He also gave Haberman one of his oh-so-clever nicknames: Maggot Haberman. (It’s still better than Biden’s nickname for Trump.) But on Monday, Axios published photos of what appear to be illegally shredded documents in the can. One picture “shows a commode in the White House,” a source told Haberman, while the other is “from an overseas trip.” You can see both photos here, in case you want to start a new week with (clean, thank god) toilet photos. You do you.
Haberman’s sources report the document dumps happened multiple times at the White House, and on at least two foreign trips. “That Mr. Trump was discarding documents this way was not widely known within the West Wing, but some aides were aware of the habit, which he engaged in repeatedly,” Haberman tells us. “It was an extension of Trump’s term-long habit of ripping up documents that were supposed to be preserved under the Presidential Records Act.”
A spokesperson for Trump told Axios, “You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan,” which isn’t a denial, exactly. Trump’s obsession with toilets and water pressure suddenly makes sense.
Haberman’s book, Confidence Man, comes out on October 4.
NEW IN AXIOS: Trump denied flushing documents as president, as I learned during reporting last year for CONFIDENCE MAN. A Trump White House source recently provided PHOTOS of paper with Trump’s handwriting in two different toilets via @mikeallen https://t.co/wv6rrupO1n
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 8, 2022
A flushing toilet should be the last sound we ever hear of the Trump presidency. A clogged toilet being plunged will forever be my lasting image of his presidency.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) August 8, 2022
AXIOS' BIG POOP… er, Scoop.
Photos from @maggieNYT of Trump's White House filing system.
This is NOT a gag, though it may make you gag https://t.co/ls49o580xt
— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) August 8, 2022
(Via Axios)