One possible reason why il douche had those documents, and I could see it being true

[rpannier]

He kept them to show off to other people to show just how important he was
As stupid as that may sound, this is the guy who set up his "Office of the Former President of the United States" like it was some official actual government office, he used the logo of the President of the U.S. simply turning it black and white.
Trump loves to feel important, and loves the trappings of fame. I could see him keeping those documents to look important

[Tetrachloride]

1. i will agree he wanted to show them off

but money or putin or “screw the libs” was paramount , in my opinion

Discuss. !

[rpannier]

2. I would lean less Putin and more Saudis

[gab13by13]

12. Trump is not a Manchurian candidate,

he is not just 1 foreign country's puppet. trump will sell our secrets to the highest bidder or to everyone and anyone.

[2naSalit]

3. Or to try and convince people he...

Is still secretly president.

I recall Mark meadows, some months ago, claiming to be part of -45's "shadow cabinet" that is allegedly still functioning.

Whatever the reason he think he took them, it was certainly to use for leverage or favor in some way... since he couldn't take hostages.

[rpannier]

8. In November, 2021 he sent an envoy to that summit in Kosovo

At Qanon it was proof he was still president

[EndlessWire]

4. Well, how stupid is he?

As soon as he showed anyone those docs, he would up his criminality significantly.

You know, I believe Trump is stupid, but there is a method to his madness, and he had a plan to use those docs for money. At least, that's what I believe.

[rpannier]

6. I don't disagree with you

But if some time down the road we were to find out he kept them to show off how important he is (or that he really was still President) I would not be surprised
In 2021, he sent an "envoy" to eastern Europe for a summit about Kosovo.
I only remember that because the Qanons were certain it was proof il douche was still president
If, forty years ago, I wrote a novel like the last 5 years. I'd have never got it published and I'd have been blackballed by every publisher

[avocado]

11. Where are the tapes and phone taps?

A man with a long history as a money lovng conman becomes our president. I can't imagine how the NSA, CIA and every intelligence. agency didn't recognize the security risk this man posed. They already know of his and his associates contacts with Russians for many years before the campaign and during it. I can't imagine they weren't watching this guy like a hawk from day 1 to prevent him from monetizing the office, as he did. It was today predictable. Surely there must be a high level plant in his staff, or tapes or phone taps of what went on.
If there aren't any of these, the agencies tasked with protecting our national security were asleep and missed an obvious potential nightmare that we are now in the midst of.
I'm sure TFG could never pass any security clearance test, so why would he be left unguarded with countless opportunities daily to do what it looks like he just got caught doing?
I'm no genius, but I saw this coming 5 years ago and am not the least bit surprised.

[gab13by13]

13. I don't believe that Mar-el-Loco

is a delivery club. If you want the goods you must appear in person to pick them up.

How could anyone surveil all of the people coming and going to Mar-el-Loco?

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Like any hotel/resort, they have security cameras (w/recordings) - probably lobby area and exterior

The issue would be how long those recordings are maintained before being overwritten.

[gab13by13]

19. Let's just play pretend,

Let's pretend that Saudi Arabia wanted nuclear information. Prince Bone Spurs is not going to be the pick up man, some unknown Saudi will be the courier. The 2 billion payment was done in the open.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. For all we know, an "exchange" may have happened at this infamous event

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-20/corporate-a-listers-descend-on-riyadh-for-trump-s-ceo-summit

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39984903

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/22/529482915/heres-the-deal-with-that-glowing-orb-and-plenty-of-notes-on-what-it-isnt

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/04/trump-orb-saudi-arabia-mbs-book

(wonder if THAT was in one of the boxes )

(ETA - see this timeline - https://www.justsecurity.org/69094/timeline-on-jared-kushner-qatar-666-fifth-avenue-and-white-house-policy/)

[BumRushDaShow]

15. "I can't imagine how the NSA, CIA and every intelligence. agency didn't recognize the security risk"

Remember this (and who determines the "gate-keepers" ) -

Article II

(snip)

Section 2.

The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

(snip)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii

Who was in charge of DOJ and DHS from 2017 - early 2021?

I posted this in another thread -

Officials rejected Jared Kushner for top secret security clearance, but were overruled

Jared Kushner was rejected for a top-secret clearance by two career security specialists, but their supervisor overruled them and approved him, sources say.

Jan. 24, 2019, 8:14 PM EST / Updated Jan. 24, 2019, 10:17 PM EST
By Laura Strickler, Ken Dilanian and Peter Alexander

WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner's application for a top-secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation and approved the clearance, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. The official, Carl Kline, is a former Pentagon employee who was installed as director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017.

Kushner's was one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top-secret clearance for incoming Trump officials despite unfavorable information, the two sources said. They said the number of rejections that were overruled was unprecedented — it had happened only once in the three years preceding Kline's arrival. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said the Trump White House attracted many people with untraditional backgrounds who had complicated financial and personal histories, some of which raised red flags.

Kushner's FBI background check identified questions about his family's business, his foreign contacts, his foreign travel and meetings he had during the campaign, the sources said, declining to be more specific. The White House office only determines eligibility for secret and top-secret clearances. As a very senior official, Kushner was seeking an even higher designation that would grant him access to what is known as "sensitive compartmented information," or SCI. That material makes up the government's most sensitive secrets, including transcripts of intercepted foreign communications, CIA source reporting and other intelligence seemingly important for Kushner, whose job portfolio covers the Mideast and Mexico.

The CIA is the agency that decides whether to grant SCI clearance to senior White House officials after conducting a further background check. After Kline overruled the White House security specialists and recommended Kushner for a top-secret clearance, Kushner's file then went to the CIA for a ruling on SCI. After reviewing the file, CIA officers who make clearance decisions balked, two of the people familiar with the matter said. One called over to the White House security division, wondering how Kushner got even a top-secret clearance, the sources said. Top-secret information is defined as material that would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if disclosed to adversaries.

(snip)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/officials-rejected-jared-kushner-top-secret-security-clearance-were-overruled-n962221

[Solly Mack]

5. I can see that. Him boasting, then saying he can prove it, so he does.

I can also see him charging to let people go in and read the documents. I can also see people checking in as guests but really being there to get to the documents. I can also see him trading information for something he wants.

Trump is a sad and pathetic man, who would do anything and say anything to get others to admire him, whether the admiration was real or not.

He is simply too needy to trust.

[murielm99]

7. Other former Presidents have libraries.

They may sell memorabilia. But for the most part, they stay out of the limelight.

[rpannier]

9. Trump is the first Fabulist president

"Look at Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Skittles]

10. Putin helped to install that piece of shit into the White House for a REASON

yes INDEED

[gab13by13]

14. C'mon people,

Trump didn't take those documents to just brag. Jared Kushner just got a 2 billion dollar loan, the government's financial people who gave him the loan recommended not to do the loan but were overruled.

[canetoad]

17. Yep

Of all the reasons theorized so far, this is the most likely.

However, from the very start of his first presidential run, there were other forces at work. Forces that saw trump as a useful idiot, perfect to carry out a right wing agenda. He just needed to be wound up and let go. Nature and momemtum would complete the task.

Who selected the documents to be transported to MaL? From the receipt and other stories, Trump's level is flogging off the Presidential dinner menu to the highest bidder. A touch of mild blackmail on Emmanuel Macron?

From start to finish, Trump was the willing, panting, slobbering tool of higher people and organisations.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

18. It's possible, given his constant need for attention.

Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All
“The Art of the Deal” made America see Trump as a charmer with an unfailing knack for business. Tony Schwartz helped create that myth—and regrets it.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all
----------
“He was playing people,” Schwartz recalls. On the phone with business associates, Trump would flatter, bully, and occasionally get mad, but always in a calculated way. Before the discussion ended, Trump would “share the news of his latest success,” Schwartz says. Instead of saying goodbye at the end of a call, Trump customarily signed off with “You’re the greatest!” There was not a single call that Trump deemed too private for Schwartz to hear. “He loved the attention,” Schwartz recalls. “If he could have had three hundred thousand people listening in, he would have been even happier.”

This year, Schwartz has heard some argue that there must be a more thoughtful and nuanced version of Donald Trump that he is keeping in reserve for after the campaign. “There isn’t,” Schwartz insists. “There is no private Trump.” This is not a matter of hindsight. While working on “The Art of the Deal,” Schwartz kept a journal in which he expressed his amazement at Trump’s personality, writing that Trump seemed driven entirely by a need for public attention. “All he is is ‘stomp, stomp, stomp’—recognition from outside, bigger, more, a whole series of things that go nowhere in particular,” he observed, on October 21, 1986. But, as he noted in the journal a few days later, “the book will be far more successful if Trump is a sympathetic character—even weirdly sympathetic—than if he is just hateful or, worse yet, a one-dimensional blowhard.”

In his journal, Schwartz wrote, “Trump stands for many of the things I abhor: his willingness to run over people, the gaudy, tacky, gigantic obsessions, the absolute lack of interest in anything beyond power and money.” Looking back at the text now, Schwartz says, “I created a character far more winning than Trump actually is.” The first line of the book is an example. “I don’t do it for the money,” Trump declares. “I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.” Schwartz now laughs at this depiction of Trump as a devoted artisan. “Of course he’s in it for the money,” he said. “One of the most deep and basic needs he has is to prove that ‘I’m richer than you.’ ” As for the idea that making deals is a form of poetry, Schwartz says, “He was incapable of saying something like that—it wouldn’t even be in his vocabulary.” He saw Trump as driven not by a pure love of dealmaking but by an insatiable hunger for “money, praise, and celebrity.” Often, after spending the day with Trump, and watching him pile one hugely expensive project atop the next, like a circus performer spinning plates, Schwartz would go home and tell his wife, “He’s a living black hole!”
----------

[samnsara]

21. probably let them touch the documents for a very hefty donation