You can bet that Putin has a record of the meeting with Trump. He was probably wearing a wire. Trump can say anything he wants about was said, and Americans will never know the truth which is just how Trump wants it.
12
A government employee plan to write a personal memoir does not make them lless than “a very good civil servant.”
If the stenographer’s notes are part of the Federal Record, who cares what about her memoirs? Her manuscript will be vetted and subject to censorship by US intelligence to prevent publication of any sensitive information about national security.
For that matter, to follow your logic, no West Wing employees should be allowed to write a memoir, including the President.
2
Of all the scary and disturbing issues coming out of this administration, the unchecked impunity to either refuse to keep written records, or in the case of the long time White House employee charged with piecing together notes and documents that were torn up and thrown away being let go after many years of service, I am continually appalled at the total lack of outrage or even small check on this president.
Congress is derelict in so many ways, not the least of which insisting that archiving and maintaining documents and records are essential, and not just a throwaway norm. A few weeks ago NPR did a segment on how this president refuses to abide by long standing rules and norms regarding archiving and record keeping. The number of Trump supporters calling in to support this was shocking and dishearterning. These are the same people still screaming "Lock her up!" and most likely part of the group of Trump supporters who declared on camera that they have no issue with the Putin summit-how it took place, and subsequent remarks. They honestly see the EU as more of an enemy than Russia. We are indeed in a dark and scary place.
10
Wonderful article; thank you for sharing your insights and experience with us Beck Dorey-Stein.
20
The man is an inveterate liar and so a record of what he says is problematic. He doesn't like recordings, or written steno records because they reveal the truth. His body language is amazingly revealing. Watch him with Putin, he is the subservient one of the two, Putin relaxed and in charge. Trump is a dreadful liar, his "tells" are obvious. Fake news? I think not.
10
Does Trump even know what a stenographer is? It's a big word, you know. Sten-o-gra-pher. Sounds kinda scientific, they probably believe in Global Warming. Can't trust 'em! Get 'em outta MY White House!
10
Duh
The truth is not his friend He lies constantly.
5
Of course he wasn't a fan, the only person he is a fan of is himself.........and least we forget, Putin.
4
Oh, how the tables have turned - positively flipped over - since Jon Stewart characterized journalism (in the lead-up to the Iraq war) as largely mere "stenography"!
I gather then, that-unfortunately- there are not and will not be any "Trump Tapes" to be subpoenaed, and argued over at SCOTUS, at some later time.!!!! Ha-Ha- America. You lose. Thank you Ms. Dorey-Stein.
3
"Perhaps he didn't fully understand the role of a stenographer". If that is true he is too stupid to sweep floors in a fast food restaurant. I think my 6 year old granddaughter could get the concept of it if it was explained to her.
When will the GOP grow up and realize that the greatest threat to liberal democracy and to America is Trump.
4
When in "rally-mode", DONALD J. TRUMP's lips move too fast for stenographers or lip readers to record how GREAT AMERICA is, so the next best thing is to have a local justice of the peace swear DONALD J. TRUMP in, and hope God's listening.
Thank you, Ms. Dorey-Stein, for speaking up, and may you inspire other "invisible" office workers to speak truth to power.
Trump demands complete loyalty, yet never reciprocates, so let's hope you are just the first of many low-level staffers who step up to do what weak-willed colleagues can't.
5
Trump didn't really want to be president and was surprised when he won. He was looking for a bigger stage to build his brand. Is it possible that the simplest and truest reason for everything he does with Putin is driven by his primal need to build his brand in Moscow - nothing more nothing less from a simpleton?
4
Interesting... Trump doesn't like being recorded and Nixon couldn't get himself recorded enough! The difference? Nixon was obsessed with his oft used phrase, "Let history record...." While Trump doesn't want to get caught in his multitude of lies and misspokes. Yet both were/are equally guilty. Or is one more guilty...?
2
Your comment about not learning how to keep the lights on was particularly on point yesterday when the lights when out, in an eery way, during the president's comments!
3
Thank you and your colleagues for your work. Good column!
3
Thank you for your service to our country. I am happy you no longer work for this POTUS. You don’t deserve the lack of respect shown to you by his administration.
3
Our president speaks without thinking. He doesn’t wish to be recorded so that he can say, “I never said that” when challenged.
3
Trump doesn't read, so it's obvious he didn't read the instructions for the presidency: The US Constitution. If he had, he'd realize that a president works for the US, not the reverse.
Your 15 minutes are up, Donny.
25
"Fake news?" Fake president.
29
What is the protocol when the White House requests or simply takes it upon themselves to make alterations to the official transcript?
I'm thinking about Scaramucci's first appearance at the podium, bragging about trump and his "three foot puts". However, the White House official transcript now reads "30 foot"....this example would be innocuous except that it confirms a willingness to lie/mislead about everything.
And The Atlantic just published a piece, on point, about the Helsinki fiasco:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/trump-putin-pr...
7
I would think it obvious that a man who apparently never reads anything unless he's forced to would be antagonistic to people who put words, often his, down on paper for posterity to read.
14
I grow tired of all these debates. It's obvious when Trump cries out ''Fake News,'' that this an authoritarian's fascist attack on the fundamental elements of democracy. He should be called out for this every time he utters the words. It should be spelled out over and over in the press the significance of what he saying, and what he really means and is trying to do. Don't give him a free ride!!!! Go after him before it is too late. This is outrageous!!!
30
Just to point out the importance and value of stenographers, if there had been a stenographer around when God was so busy getting things started and making things just so, we would have only one religion or none at all.
8
Imagine you are the president of the USA. Trump can do it, so can you. You have on staff a bunch of stenographers who record all of your conversations with people while performing the duties of your office. Now suppose one, or more, of those stenographers is also writing a book, a personal memoir, about her experiences in the White House. How can a president trust that those stenographers are not using anything that they witness or hear for an entertaining anecdote for her book? The stenographer notes and recording are federal records and are subject to federal record controls, but not the musings of a person writing her personal memoir.
What this author does not say, but admits on video elsewhere, follow the link at the bottom of the article, is that she is such a stenographer who has been making daily personal notes of her experiences in preparation of writing her personal memoir. Fine, good. She's an entertaining author, but she isn't a very good civil servant. Her memoir is proof of her conflict of interest. Oh, never mind about Trump's conflicts of interest. She isn't Trump. That excuses nothing on her part. She was conflicting interests while working for Obama.
2
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus
Or she is writing about the truth of an administration that tries to lie.
5
Baloney! There have been White House stenographers in Democratic and Republican administrations for a very long time. When was the last time you heard of a President trying to hide from them?
5
"Our job, after all, was to provide a first line of defense against the press by being present whenever a reporter was in the same room as the president."
Really? No. Your job is to accurately record conversations. The implication that a reporter is to be defended against as is just as bad the hate spewed by her boss toward "the enemy of the people."
6
This is truly important--thank you for letting the nation know.
13
I used to work for a boss who would regularly change his story and blame his team for not doing what he said. When they started to bring tape recorders to make sure they didn't miss anything, he made them turn it off.
There are jerks like this everywhere; sad that there's one in the oval office.
41
Yikes! How interesting! Thanks so much for your sacrifice in trying to do the impossible! Your job was never meant to substitute your clear thinking for his muddled expressions. Not surprising Trump doesn't like stenos or recording devices. He has tried, with some success, to turn his inability to express coherent thought as understandable spoken words. He's abundantly aware of his communication disability. We don't know where on the thought-formation-to-spoken-word continuum what the disconnect is, but it is almost surely physiological. It is a dangerous disability in a man wielding the power of the presidency. In business he had sharp attorneys straighten out his sentences, and the benefit was immense. In his much more public role as president he doesn't have that filter. So we live with a leader who is always saying something inappropriate, trial-and-error-like, who continually revises his words until something causing the approximate effect he wants comes out. He uses a limited vocabulary repetitively, with his listeners stuck having to play a continual game of charades. It is exhausting. If only he couldn't conjugate "to be". Voters would have rejected him in a heartbeat, although that language problem doesn't necessarily lead to misunderstanding. It just sounds bad.
4
If the policy is to record every conversation so as to be sure of the content, shoulda reporter get it wrong, then isn't there a procedure in place to make an appeal to, to get him to do the right thing?
1
Worst president in history. Absolutely unprofessional, rude, crude, crazy, and dishonest. Trump the egomaniac wants to cement his legacy, but the legacy will be a name synonymous with liar.
29
'Fake news' from him, just a slur.
So is everything that comes from his mouth. Unless it's a boast or a simple lie, as good as it gets.
This is called 'telling it like it is.'
6
If my federal employer knew I was taking daily notes of my work experiences in preparation of writing a book I think they wouldn't be enthusiastic about my presence. Now don't confuse taking notes for a book with doing one's job as a White House stenographer in service of the nation. They aren't the same. One might even say that such activity would be a conflict of interest. The author admits this, but not the conflict of interest. She started the job with the intent of writing a book. It's a shame she left. It seems she would have gotten along just fine with Trump.
2
This makes perfect sense. Trump has even admonished friends from using email because it has gotten them into trouble (infidelity, mostly). Trump also wants a fungible truth. He’s never catered the truth, it isn’t his friend.
8
@historyRepeated
Trump didn't use email in his private business before he ran for office.
4
"It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth."
Exactly! Truth is the great enemy to Mr. Trump, who has already told Americans over 3000 documented lies.
On the other hand, truth will be the savior of the American people, if we do manage to save our country.
15
@Barbara
Follow the link at the bottom of the article in reference to the author's new memoir. She says it on video. She took the job with the intent of writing a personal, money making memoir. This particular White House stenographer was not serving the administration either. She was serving herself.
1
The fact remains that Trump does not want his exact words recorded, or else he could not call any unfavorable coverage "fake news".
13
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus
Why are you so disturbed that this person is writing a memoir about working at the White House? She doesn't work there anymore. How many memoirs have been written by former staffers/employees at the White House, Congress, other agencies? I can recall many just off the top of my head. Why are you trying to discount what she is saying about Trump's deviation from the norm (again) in his aversion to being recorded, when any President's words, deeds, writings are matters of the PUBLIC record? Why are you attacking the messenger when it is Trump who is the liar?
1
I want to be first in line when the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Gentlemen's Club is built.
4
It will probably be a lot more Gentlemen's Club than Presidential Library, given The Donald's dislike of reading and penchant for strippers. He could make Stormy Daniels the head librarian!
5
Very telling and yet republicans refuse to confront trump. No president should be able to destroy the paper trail and no president should be allowed to dismiss stenographers. trump has proven that a president can be a danger to America.
17
The Trump administration rebuffed President Obama's transition team when they wanted to teach them how to keep the lights on. Today, when Trump was attempting to retrofit his inane remarks at the summit yesterday on national TV - reading from a typed statement with some difficulty - the lights went out.
Stay tuned...
11
Trump does not want accurate records kept, he has enough trouble dealing with his recorded TV and radio events, and the internet never forgets. His lies are already kept on forever, but behind closed doors who knows Guggenheim he has said it committed to.
4
A wonderful article by a person who performed an exceptionally vital function. We know now, beyond any doubt, Trump has an inherent hatred of truth and accountability. That's the way he rolls.
22
Why would a life-long continual liar want to have conversations documented?
17
After Helsinki I can't help thinking: why do we tolerate all of this? The President, is more than unfit, he is traitorous. He obstructs justice, is a danger to national security and our very way of life. He needs to be stopped, before the country burns.
24
He is hiding something. Maybe even so many bigly things. So he lies about everything as a way of hiding from the light of facts. Never in my long life did I imagine seeing a President said with Russia one day and then lie the next, claiming it was just a double negative error. Want to bet that Putin loves stenographers?
14
@Artemis Hudson
And add to that the fact that no speechwriter would use a double negative! And no speechwriter's speech for any President, even this "president" would submit it without proofreaders review!
2
You can be sure that Trump does not even know what a “double negative” is.
2
Trump is not very bright but he's clever enough to know that it will be harder to bring him to account if as little as possible of what he says is recorded or written down.
That is just one of the many issues that even diehard Trump supporters should be concerned about.
15
Trump doesn't even know he's lying, most of the time. "Remember, Jerry: It's not a lie if you believe it." -- George Costanza
12
Yes. I think it stems from his insecurities, his bluster and bullying to cover them and then his self sabotage to give him an excuse for his failures. It’s interesting that people gravitate towards this type of person and perpetuate and reinforce this sort of behavior.
2
The slime and crud of this administration is breathtaking. How much more do people need to see, hear and know? What purpose, does a person like trump, serve the country? Tax cuts for the wealthy that drive up a huge debt and deficit? Everything else about his policies is chaos, turning our backs on our allies, creating problems and conflicts where none existed before, creating uncertainty in our markets with these ridiculous tariffs, national embarrassments verging on reason...Republican extremist will be out of work soon!
10
“If the president is the victim of so much inaccurate reporting ... why is he so averse to having facts recorded and transcribed?”
Why? Because, under the right circumstances, “facts” morph into something altogether different, and more dangerous. They become “evidence at trial”.
14
Can Obama be president again...please???
31
"It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth."
Right on.
31
Trump does not know policy. He does not care to know policy; nor will he spend a second listening to others help him out with policy. He is a dismantler; a destroyer. God help us all as Trump quickly erodes American civility, public discourse, foundations of our democracy, our environment, Affordable Care Act, education standards, etc, etc.
Any DECENT Republicans remaining to help this badly-limping ship called America?
17
Excellent summarizing last sentence: White House stenographers do not serve Trump, but rather his adversary: the truth. I expect that Trump's minions who (at taxpayer expense) specialize in doing battle against the truth (Hope Hicks, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and their ilk) also are not happy with stenographers recording the lies.
21
Donald Trump might be the first president, or Head-of-State anywhere, ever to publicly dispute hard, recorded, evidence played back directly before his own eyes and ears.
No collusion! NO COLLUSION!! Yes there was. YES, THERE WAS!! It showed full force right there on that podium in Helsinki. Our president groveled like a tyrant's butler.
Fake news?
25
There is simply no end to his depravity and amorality. No end to it.
23
@DSG-
Try telling that to millions who voted for him once and will again given the chance. Some profess to even love him.
You can’t, because you can’t reach them. They don’t hear you, because they don’t listen. Or read. Or know. Or care to know. Or want to know. They prefer to wallow in rank ignorance and faith. Faith. In Christianity — their white Christianity. And in a self-proclaimed, self-professed “American Exceptionalism” that’s equal parts self-interest, self-deception and self-indulgence.
That ultimately manifests itself as white-hot hatred of those whom they regard as threats and social inferiors, enemies like Rep. Steve King’s idealized undocumented Latino immigrant. “For every valedictorian there's another hundred that weigh 130 pounds, and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the border ...”.
2
I keep thinking about the total absence of self reflection in millions of citizens. The human attribute of denying reality because your emotion based fantasies don't like things as they actually are.
The GOP has long proclaimed that they are the family values party. Jesus and Rabbi Hillel both used the golden rule (Hillel said "don't do unto others, etc) as a model for ethical behavior.
Regardless of how a parent behaves, I've never seen one teach a child to lie as much as possible. refuse to admit the truth, and feel no shame in telling the exact opposite version of a previous statement shortly thereafter.
A constant liar shows utter contempt for all, especially his fans. He is thinking, " I can pull the wool over these dupes eyes a million times, and still the idiots believe whatever I say."
He calls the truth tellers "liars", "fake". Denies actual reality over and over. Now is that family values? Is that how Jesus or Hillel would behave? Is hating the poor, giving all privileges to the rich, denying succor to refugees, hating all races and religions other than your own, poisoning the environment, hating democracy, making money off your elected office, is all this and much more the behavior you want your kid to imitate? How is the exact opposite of what Jesus preached called Christianity?
Anyone that claims to be a "good" person who is proud of the GOP and Trump is in utter denial of reality.
14
Over 40% of US population approves of Trump, the liar-in-chief.
Inexplicable to me.
22
Trump is a pathological lying liar who wants everything to remain subject to revision just like Orwell's Ministry of Truth in "1984".
15
Congress needs to pass law immediately that stenography is required and not at the discretion of the President. (All these common sensical important things/ safeguards one thinks is in place and shouldn’t be a problem for any President — it’s shocking that they never are!!)
27
"Perhaps he didn’t fully understand the role of the stenographer." Perhaps not. But that is really a minor issue. He has yet to demonstrate that he both knows and understands the complexities and multidimensionalities of being POTUS as well as "inheriting"- not selected or elected-his role as a world leader. Of greater significance is that many of US do not seem to fathom that our words and feelings, of whatever valences, will not be sufficient to make needed changes for equitable wellbeing for ALL, to be achieved and sustained, as Trump and his minions continue to create, by word and deed,temporary and more permanent harms, in our toxic culture of personaly unaccountability. In the infectious divisiveness of our enabled WE-THEY daily violating of targeted, created "the other!" JUST words- even outrage- transmutes into impotent complicity; as if saying is enough to make a needed difference!. If "cancer" was semantically treatable we would "cancel" or "delete" IT!
4
Ms. Dorey-Stein, thank you for bearing witness and having the courage to publish this article in The New York Times, our country's paper of record. You got to the heart of the matter: what is the truth and what do we value as Americans?
17
Trump is a unique individual. He's the first man to be elected to office who doesn't care about facts or the truth? There's no way to debate a man with such little character. If he finds himself on the wrong side of the street, he quickly changes his position as if nothing happened. Whenever any positive news hits the airways he takes credit. If he gets caught with the lights on, a la his illicit affair with Stormy Daniels and the associated $130,000 payment that he wasn't aware of, he reverses his position as if nothing happened. I imagined that he'd again blame President Obama or someone in the previous administration for his adulterous behavior. His supporters including the religious right don't seem to particularly care about hearing the truth. Nor do they care about all the people he's screwed over the years. After all, the man has been involved in only 3500 lawsuits. So, how do you debate or respond to such an evil, lying scoundrel without turning yourself into a mirror image?
15
@Richard
What you are describing are the extreme difficulties in having any kind of dealings with a mentally ill person and the impossibility of having expectations that any interaction will be normal, will be what you experience with normal people. He is not normal. He has an extremely disordered personality and meets all DSM criteria for being diagnosed as a sociopath. He is also a narcissist and clearly has borderline personality disorder. All of these categories are extremely difficult to treat and difficult to encounter, whether in a family member or in any kind of interaction. He is unfit to be President. Congress should remove him on that basis: he is unfit and he presents a great danger to this country. His sociopathic lack of conscience, lack of what others call morality, alone makes him a danger and unfit. He must be removed from office.
1
Potus lies with regularity an loves to cry "fake news". With no stenographer there is less chance of proving his veracity . No need to let facts get in the way as his people all seem to have been lobotomized anyway. Trump telling the truth seems to happen about as often as the Transit of Venus anyway. Our modern little Caesar might now say "I came, I saw, I lied." End of story!
13
Thank You! More insights about our Fake President....
14
trump is truly a leader for a pre-literate society. One headed for eventual extinction.
17
"But now, we were faced with a president who didn’t want to be recorded. Perhaps he didn’t fully understand the role of the stenographer." Seriously? Trump fully understands that this would hold him accountable for all of his endless lies that even FOX can't cover up.
Trump is a liar and we now have documented proof that he is a Communist sympathizer and traitor. It is up to we voters to rid ourselves of his co-conspirators in Congress and render him impotent.
19
@Steve All true except he is not a "Communist" sympathizer because the Russian Federation is not communistic. It is a system of organized crime enmeshed with a totalitarian despotic government in which criminal oligarchs are indistinguishable from government tyrants. It is organized crime that Trump and Putin embrace. Trump has an oft-reported history of doing business with organized crime syndicates, as did his father, reportedly. This is who more than a few Americans invited into our precious system of government and now they cheer him and behave like the worst barbarians in his honor. This is not any America that any of us who love our country recognize. As the brilliant piece by Jonathan Chair for NY Magazine says so bluntly, and heartbreakingly,
"Who could believe that the world’s most powerful country was about to hand its presidency to a Russian dupe? That the United States government had, essentially, fallen?"
Tonight on TV news, knowledgeable people actually said that our President might be a Russian agent.
Think about it, folks. Why are you Trump supporters doing this to our country, your country, too, you know?
Why in God's name are you enabling this horrific coup?
1
That's because Donald spells truth P-R-A-V-D-A.
17
Does anyone really believe Putin didn't have a recording device on him during his one on one with Trump?
24
It wasn’t really 1:1. Both had a translator. To me the question is: does anyone really think these translators were anything but well-trained agents who fully documented the conversation?
5
@Mary-
Odds are both translators were wired by their respective intelligence agencies.
2
Can't they pin a radio mic to his lapel or hide it in his hair like they do on Broadway?
9
Trump is an enemy of fact; space time continuum; The Constitution; the United States of America; NATO; truth; and Democracy.
15
When the President meets "privately" with a foreign ruler who's not a native speaker of English, does he at least bring a translator employed by the US federal government?
14
And if so, can that federal employee be compelled to testify by Congress?
12
You are completely right. I suspect he will never have the Nixon Watergate problem either, where Nixon was so sure everything he was doing would be worth remembering for history.
Nixon was ultimately proved right, but not because what he was doing would be lauded by history--quite the opposite.
Trump's hatred for the truth (unless it is his "truth") may eventually get him in as much trouble as Nixon's tapes got him.
10
As a former federal civil servant who worked in Washington, DC through more than one transition I would like to offer my assessment of what this editorialist has said, and her credibility as a civil servant.
One. It was her first transition, and she failed. She only served Obama and then lost her job. So maybe she didn't handle the transition well. Why would I think that? She wrote an op-ed in the partisan liberal NYT. It's an openly partisan editorial.
Two. She wrote a book about her experience in the White House. So soon? Maybe she had a discernible private agenda when she took the job.
I doubt any president likes microphones next to his face. Listen to the Johnson tapes (LBJ) it's quite evident there were no microphones near his face. Or Kennedy's when he was discussing the Cuban Missile crisis.
This is more fake news by another PPO. (partisan political operative).
2
There's always two side and more to any story. The question is - why doesn't he want to be recorded? The answer is - because he can't keep his lies straight and has much to hide.
17
Could you clarify what is "fake" about this piece? The issue of her motivation in writing it is really beside the point. The substance of what she says seems important enough to have been published, given that the current president has revived 1930s tactics of calling the press the enemy of the people fairly frequently. But perhaps you agree with him.
21
A typical Trumpian tactic, trash the messenger not the message. The writer worked in the Obama White House for half a decade, which is a long tenure in a pressure cooker of an atypical environment. Now that you've had your jollies denigrating her, how about revealing your illustrious public career, along with the specific dates of all of those "transitions". Silence!
10
Wow. I’m agog.
4
Is the nation over?
No, tho we are not looking good.
4
An incurable liar does not like to be bothered with facts, such as what he said yesterday or last week. It inconveniences him in his lying.
19
@Allison Indeed, he knows he did not say it ... ever.
It has to be fake news.
1
Ouch! But so completely believable with this Treasonous Fake President and his Truth-less Administration. The recent seizure of his lawyer Cohen's office records by federal authorities will, undoubtedly, make for some stunning reading about the "Secret Adventures of Donald Trump".
12
People who bothered to learn about Trump BEFORE he was elected know his background and his determination to avoid any traps that could serve to indict him. That means that no one will EVER catch him in the act of committing a crime. The only way to catch him is to surreptitiously surveil him and I hope that is happening right now in the best interest of our nation's security. The way Trump will be indicted is via witnesses. But just like he has today and other days, if he gets caught he will change up his approach, lie, deny, accuse someone else, and pretend he did nothing wrong.
15
Thank you for having the courage to tell the truth about what went on in the White House and the lack of appreciation for what you were doing.
Trump and his staff think none of "the rules" apply to them, as if they just invented the presidency when they arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania. Furthermore, Trump thinks he can push away rules and procedures at his pleasure. He's king now, right? Everything is to revolve around what he wants, what makes him comfortable and happy, no matter.
The cheering people who apparently think that every word he speaks is wholly writ know nothing of the complexities of our national government and they are delighted to see Trump rip-up the rule book, but there is a price to pay and it will be paid by all citizens, again and again. The most rabid supporters don't care to learn nor, now, do they care about the consequences.
In one poll a few years ago, 60% of respondents said they believed they could make better decisions than those in high offices. A wise professor friend of mine said they are "showing their civic ignorance" in such beliefs. Many people think it is easy to run a national government for 340+ million people. Trump shows again and again, it is not.
9
Trump is probably used to "back room" deals and conversations where he can say one thing to Party A and 180 degree different to Party B and deny to each party his conflicting statements. He either doesn't realize that everything he says and does is under a microscope and any conflicting statements are obvious and well documented. Although his supporters probably don't care or they just focus on the set of statements that they want to hear.
16
Donald Trump is a liar and a traitor.
39
It would seem that someone as narcissistic as Trump would enjoy having someone inscribing his every word as he does his job as the most important leader in the world. The fact that he avoids it indicates a likely tendency to lie. But then, we found that out a long time ago.
24
New Jersey has known since Trump went bankrupt in Atlantic City - and did his best to transfer that financial burden to the people of NJ (especially those in the Atlantic City area) - that Trump lies and reflects blame for everything. The next time you Red State people start grousing about how NJ has such high taxes, take a look at what YOUR tax burden will be after you also have to start cleaning up after Trump.
We warned you.
50
I'm sure there are other capable stenographers who like most most government employees would assume a nonpartisan view, keep that perspective and simply earn a living by letting an elected president conduct his business however he wishes. BDS can always participate in the next democrat primary cabal and though her candidate will not win she can say her efforts were more appropriately focused.
1
@AirMarshalofBloviana I think she has presented a factual and non-partisan view. It is only partisan if you view the truth as represented by facts as malleable and the facts as optional. Of course there are other stenographers who may work for partisans who wish to continue being employed and will keep their accurate observations to themselves. Are those the capable stenographers to whom you refer?
21
I bet you a dollar Donald Trump doesn’t know what a stenographer is or does.
8
@John Lindberg
" I think she has presented a factual and non-partisan view. "It is only partisan if you view the truth as represented by facts as malleable and the facts as optional."
An eloquent defense of her personal opinion by one who is not saddled with responsibility of his own presidency.
Ya know, John, I once worked among professionals with far more wall worthy credentials than my own. However, my consistent demonstration of common sense in their absence allowed both of us to carry the night shift against the odds. Mine physically, they in spirit. A group of decent human beings. Don't think we'd ever be much interested in revealing specifics about each other in NYT, anytime soon. That's fine with me. Life goes on.
The Pres. knows it takes a while for people to catch on to his tricky style where up is down and yesterday never happened if he says so. Unfortunately even though his reputation proceeds him too many refuse to see the red flags or hear the blaring horns warning us all that the Liar In Chief leaves no records, shreds many pertinent administration documents and spins more than a stadium filled with whirling dervishes.
22
Well said. The truth is indeed Trump's adversary.
For him it's exactly what Kellyanne Conway said: there are always alternate "facts". A microphone is no good for him. For instance a microphone does not lie, nor does it allow him an alternate set of facts. For a man who thrives on lies, he has absolutely no use for it. He wants it out of the Oval Office because it actually records the truth.
25
Thank you for an enlightening article about a little-known protocol for transparency in government.
It reminded me of Nixon, who also had problems with the truth. A Watergate audio tape suspiciously had an 18-minute erasure that Nixon had his secretary, Rosemary Woods, take the blame for.
We can only hope that Trump's presidency meets a similar fate to Nixon's.
18
Let's hope when Trump's time is up he does not plan on converting Mar- A- Lago into a Presidential Library. I would hate to think that American taxpayers will be responsible for its upkeep. What would be the purpose? He writes no letters, sends no emails, and has not said anything worth listening to since he was sworn in. The only things he has written since taking office are probably his golf score cards and we certainly cannot attest to the fact that no mulligans were taking during those rounds.
17
Don't give him ideas......
3
"Perhaps he didn’t fully understand the role of the stenographer." Oh, please. This man couldn't even spell stenographer, let alone "understand the role." He has been making up his own facts forever. He's living in his own parallel universe. Did this really surprise you?
16
That makes it official as if it were not already abundantly clear.
8
The performance yestery explains why Mr. Trump has an aversion to the print words, His inability to tell the truth would be a slap in his face once the hateful words he stated are heard by the public especially his base.
Thank goodness the tour of know nothing is over.
11
He wants Implausable Deniability.
19
Why can't we weaponize this? Misquote him freely insulting his enablers in Congress, the Supreme Court, Cabinet members and better yet, big donors. At this point, he has no credibility, and can turn vitriolic towards someone on a dime. If he can't prove he didn't say something, put words in his mouth!!!
7
@Maria
Although your idea is a dangerous and cynical one, I love it! It takes away his power and it mocks his disordered, chaotic deceptions. The ultimate "throwing the feces back at the monkey" vulgar, uncivilized, amoral nihilistic act.
It is a madly, black humored idea. It is also a pernicious idea to the country and Trump is already doing enough harm to our country.
What a lovely little article, asking the simplest - and most obvious - question that has been staring us in the face all this time.
22
Before becoming President, Donald Trump had never served in public office. He never served in a position where he was responsible for the functioning of a bureaucracy whose purpose was to "serve the residents, schools, businesses, public services and visitors" of a geographical area. Trump's early followers wanted to believe that he would be a fix-it president, and run the country more efficiently. Many people felt they "knew" him already, from watching him on TV. Trump took advantage of those perceptions and quickly made fun of the candidates he was running against. Being a celebrity, Trump continually got away with slurs and slips of the tongue that would destroy any other candidate...overnight! To make matters worse, Trump overtly caters only to his "base", so he really doesn't even try to represent all US citizens. Trump discovered quickly that "divide and conquer" is the style of governing that best suits him, and his base loves it!
Now that the entire World has seen Trump act on the Global Stage, no one will refer to this president as the "leader of the Free World". Trump is in this "gig" only to serve his own interests, as well as those who enable him. Follow the money, and we will all discover whom President Trump is really serving.
24
@Silvio M Trump has never "served" in his life. He has always had everything he wanted brought to him.
4
@kenneth I stand corrected! Thanks!
@Silvio M Trump and his inexplicable cult following seem quite eager to foment a civil war in this country over whether one has fealty to Trump or to our country.
This is madness.
Trump is required to preserve every scrap of his legislative documents by law. But he years them up, so there are people who take the torn scraps and piece them together to fulfill the law.
All this is indicative of Trump's view that he is above the law, that he should never be scrutinized or evaluated--only praised.
This is yet another indicator of his incompetence and irresponsibility. He should not be in office.
40
Trump will never understand that he works for us, not the other way around. What he does and says is the output we are paying him for. This is another reason why having a secret meting with Putin is so outrageous...he is supposed to be working for us...that meeting is our business. It is our property. Presidents have stenographers, mob bosses, who lie and con people for a living, do not. Trump is not a president and never will be.
50
If you were a pathological liar would you want to be recorded?
25
@nzierler: only if you understand you are lying. Which people have been wondering about since the first lie. Now with this article & his antics overseas, we know. He does. He understands he is lying, that it is untruth, that he will be in bad trouble if caught (he has been, so time for punishment), so he doesn’t allow the stenographers to do their jobs, tears up written proof. Time to bug EVERY room he ever goes into, plus closets. That includes all toilets. With systems that can record every word & sound, even when water is running (remember the old spy shows & turning on the sink?). All areas must be recorded even when empty. Don’t forget cameras that can do legible closeups of all written documentation. Then don’t bother to tell him. He’ll just tell someone to turn them off, who will be too scared to tell him, there is NO OFF. Not for anyone, anywhere, in this regime. Including every word & action between husbands & wives. All regime members homes, cars & they will be followed wherever they go, to get all info they should be keeping anyway. So, they all lose ALL privacy.
5
Trump doesn't want stenographers to record his conversations. The FBI should bug his office and put a wire on his Secret Service detail. America needs protection from Trump and bugging him would be serving the nation's needs.
35
@Linda Actually, his office really is wired. That's why he's careful about what he says indoors.
The special counsel needs to subpoena the translator from yesterday's meeting with Putin. Love to see him testify under oath.
25
@Steve: & recorded. Oh, get his notes!
2
@Steve
I bet the translators were stuck in a closet somewhere for much of this little tête-à-tête.
Putin speaks English. He has a Russian accent, of course, but it wouldn't surprise me if his command of the language is better than Trump's.
10
Maybe Nixon HAD half the right idea - record every meeting for history, to prove you’re good, honest, a good President they lie about...
The problem for Nixon was the tapes proved him a criminal, certainly unfit to be President.
Trump’s speeches are not just damningly malicious towards his own government, maybe treasonous, denouncing US law enforcers and the Senate, while praising the ruler of the nation both accuse. All of his comments need transcription for the present as well as history.
Revised stories, sometimes told in Tweets made hours after an ill-received speech aren’t just lies, and, as with the Tabloid TV groper tape change over time from admission and justification to denying his voice. He seems to believe we all lack memory, that he can say anything today, revise tomorrow and not be questioned.
Worse, sometimes his speeches are incoherent. Set into print, they just don’t make sense. I’m not just saying the ideas show a disconnection with reality, as in claiming his phones were tapped by Obama or Mexico will pay for a border wall. Nor that his off-the-cuff grammar isn’t perfect.
They just make no sense. They seem to start out on point, then deteriorate like (pure invention of mine) ‘I said to my pal, your governor, tariffs! more jobs; abortion is, well homosexual agenda, Our National Value -Crooked Hillary, no IRS forms Make America Great Again’.
Look up a few speech transcripts and read with care.
This man is not fit to serve as President.
26
You asked if Trump is really the victim of so much inaccurate reporting, why is he so averse to having the facts recorded and transcribed.....
Easy. If there is no official record of what he said, he can easily claim that any or all reporting is "fake news." He doesn't want to be recorded.
11
Yesterday afternoon I called my Congresswoman , Susan Brooks, and asked if she planned to release a statement criticizing Trump's traitors summit with Putin, along with his destructive insults of EU leaders.
The aide who answered the phone at Brooks' DC office
just hemmed and hawed. She said she didn't
know anything about it. I asked her if she read and/or watched the news.
This is the response of another Congressional Republican to a President who does not care about human rights, democracy, or the Constitution. Susan Brooks is one of the Silent Enablers. Her office "hasn't heard" about the Helsinki disaster. They keep their heads down and pretend that not responding means they are doing their jobs.
Republicans also have a hardline group of ACTIVE
co-conspirators: Nunes, Jordan, Meadows, Gaetz, Goodlatte, etc. And then there are the pretenders - I guess they are pretending to speak out, but they do NOT keep it up.
They are inconsistent: Sasse, Collins, Corker, Todd Young, sometimes also Flake (and all of the unnamed Repubs).
Ryan and McConnell are a combination of pretenders and silent enablers. They'll distance themselves a WEE bit from Trump, but not very often. They never mention Trump's name when they do that little bit of distancing.
These are the representatives of American citizens.
They have all failed us.
55
@SCZ
Don't forget Lindsay Graham.
1
There are no mulligans when you are POTUS. But Trump is LOTUS (Liar of the United States), not POTUS. So he hides the truth by default.
Congress needs to pass a law demanding that stenographers have full access to record the presidency. No secret meetings. Who knows what other phone, email, and other records are not being saved as per existing law? Trump refuses to play by the rules. What about upholding his oath of office? We the People object.
28
I’d really prefer modern tech, time-stamped, encoded videos.
But we would need a VERY strong lockbox for the result, allowing the necessary backchannels, off-the-record meetings, things nobody should have access to until long after all involved are dead.
Would YOU be willing to have YOUR life available, on request, to anybody in the world?
Beyond that think of ALL the implications you would establish because of one man or one act.
Congress took its time, and initially did a 3/4-way decent job in ‘74 after Nixon. The Supreme Court, once again mot controlled by “conservatives” but by the wealthy, destroyed much of campaign finance reform, then went to work destroying easy voter registration.
Congress did a horrible job, destroying civil liberties, when it quickly passed the almost-400-page Homeland Security Act, because people demanded swift action to deal with a rather small, well-organized terror operation, one that could never be repeated under the existing system.
2
I'd just like to say..., er, uh, is this being recorded?
3
Today my friends and I discussed this OP piece. We wonder why so many of our friends and family still believe what he says. Our thoughts are that his Twitter account has turned into his Propaganda Machine. He lies so easily by telling 1/2 truths.
Not to mention he misses a real opportunity to be able to prove news is fake. Makes you wonder.
10
Criminals don’t like to have their confessions on record.
14
A little inside baseball. A president who lies and manipulates the truth on a daily basis would hardly want an accurate transcript of his remarks. Ditto any record of his conversation with Putin. We will never know the basis for Putin’s total ownership of Trump.
18
@NYT
The op-ed piece says,
"It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth."
I suggest that is to misunderstand Trump. I think that he regards the truth as a flexible arrangement. He tells the truth as it is on any given day or hour. If he wants to, he re-creates the truth as something else on another day or in different company.
And this is the privilege point - when you're President of the US, you are the person who sets the standard. What you say IS the Truth - or at any rate the truth for now. the NYT etc is producing fake news, because it does not meet his standards.
This is how the narcissist compulsive liar works inside his head, creating and re-creating reality around them.
10
Trump learned how to hide the truth and then lie about it from the nefarious Roy Cohn, right hand man of the infamous Sen. Joe McCarthy. Trump is more than a reminder of that era, he is it's living legacy.
29
Bravo.
Thank you.
21
I still find it appalling to find a president who makes Nixon look good by comparison.
Is there any chance that this lack of stenographers might be in violations of acts regarding record-keeping? Not that this would bother Trump, but I am curious.
26
Truth is served by a record. Those in power who oppose recording by whatever means are the enemies of historical accuracy and truth. It is only in the absence of accurate records that people like Trump can bend facts with any plausibility to suit their narcissistic needs.
When he was an alleged business mogul, Trump could lie through his teeth about his dealings and no one dared contradict him for fear of losing their job or suffering retaliation. Internationally and in Washington DC, the rules are different, and bray as he may about "fake" stories, the ONLY fake around is Trump himself. He is the biggest loser.
24
Putin's press spokesman was standing in the wings at the presser yesterday, snickering as Trump spoke because it was so obvious what a complete buffoon he is. Not only a buffoon but stupid and in the words of the Russians a "useful idiot" on full display for the world to see how totally out of his depth he is intellectually, politically, and as the Russians know -- financially -- which is the sword they have hanging over him. They know his "empire" is a fraud propped up with Russian loans and laundered money.
35
Trump is an outright fraud and liar. The judgements against him in courts and the evidence shows that without any reasonable doubt. It's a sin and a dis-service to our democracy to make excuses for Trump or to mitigate what he is , a profound and incorrigible liar and fraud.
19
Why doesn't someone tell the president that he has to have a stenographer, that it is part of being president?
9
@Barbie: They want to keep getting the obscene amount of money they are getting paid for ignoring &/or forwarding all the lies. He gets mad at you, you will never get another job anywhere. No one would dare. He’d have them in prison just for giving you an interview. Or so he makes everyone believe.
How did he get ‘partners’ in business take all the hits & lose all the money in joint businesses, then let him take all the deductions for all the losses, for decades?
5
More treason.
13
Am I the only one hoping one of our intelligence agencies (or one of our allies') was recording the private conversation between Trump and Putin at their "summit"?
17
Those who continually and habitually wish to speak only "off the record" commonly have it in mind that the quasi-record can be altered to suit their ends. In Trump, we have seen this in action time and again. His practice of "plausible deniability" is a jaw-dropping joke, although not a humorous one, because of its implausibility. We have seen him deny or alter something he's said, and then refuse to accept absolute proof contrary to his altered version. But so very, very sadly, we've become used to it. We've become used to a president who lives lies every day of his life... the kind of man with whom only a very few of us would voluntarily associate. Oh, my poor country.
13
So you're trying to tell me, that a New Yorker of my first 42 years, that a white-collar criminal synonymous with evidence destruction as far back as the 70s is doing whatever he can as (gag) president, to keep records from being kept?
No need to refine your pitch, we're sold.
13
What is more disappointing than the constant flow of facts showing that our President is unfit, (really, we knew that before he took office), is the extent of enabling by so-called serious Republicans. Essentially, no Republican senator planning on serving beyond 2018 has the courage to call him out. They will be judged.
17
Thank you for your work, Ms. Dorey-Stein. Work, truth, and detail are anathema to the character-disordered.
12
Mr. Trump is an ideal candidate for an ankle monitor with audio.
33
President Trump wants to control the message and that means controlling the facts to suit the message. He does not need verbatim records around which can and probably will contradict. Since all news that favors him is true and all that does not is untrue, any record by professional stenographers serve no purpose.
Trump sees himself as the head of state, the final l, and the true embodiment of the full authority of the United States. The laws, the courts, the Congress, and the entire government are his to direct as he decides. Dissent is contrary to his authority, news that diminishes his authority threatens the integrity of his government. Laws which oppose his decisions, thwart his ability to act are disruptive of good law and order. Trump opposes liberal democratic government because it limits his power to do as he sees fit. He opposes government under law not men, because it constrains him.!
About sixty million voters agree with Trump’s intentions to end our republic as it was created under a written constitution and to withdraw from all international agreement where the U.S. is obliged to gain the support of other states to do as it likes. Trump represents the death of trust amongst this huge minority of citizens in the rest of the citizens, in the legal system, and in the trustworthiness of people in countries with who we have alliances. Without trust, they turn to a charismatic leader to act for them, and treat all others as existential threats to themselves.
13
"...Trump sees himself as the head of state, the final l, and the true embodiment of the full authority of the United States..."
was supposed to be
"...Trump sees himself as the head of state, the final authority, and the true embodiment of the full authority of the United States..."
Another curious improvement by the A.I. in the spell checker of the text editing software of the device system that I used.
2
Richard Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace, brought down by his own words--faithfully recorded in the oval office. Trump appears determined that won't happen to him, avoiding recorders like the plague and insisting on conducting even the most consequential of meetings in total secrecy, outside the earshot not just of stenographers but of any other third parties who could put lie to his own tales of what happened behind those tightly closed doors.
Nixon was brought down by his hubris--believing himself unconstrained by truth, that his command of the highest office in the land made everything he said and did lawful by definition. It remains to be seen whether Trump will suffer a similar fate, brought down by the hubris of his belief in the infallibility of his own manufactured reality--his apparent certainty not only that his followers will believe whatever he tells them, however at odds it may be with objective truth, but that whatever he says becomes "truth" by definition. It is that "reality" that allows him to live in the fantasyland of his own strength and genius, unique among all men in all of history, surrounded by adoring crowds as far as the eye can see.
If there are any heroes at the end of this presidency, they will be the stenographers, the journalists, the witnesses who are dedicated to the preservation and reporting of objective truth--and to the belief that at the end of the day the story of every presidency is not a "reality" show, but a documentary.
15
This is the most important piece the Times has published since Trump began as president. It speaks volumes about the truthfulness of this president. Fabulists don't like to have their words recorded because they don't then have to be responsible for them.
32
It's well-known that stenographers and official transcripts are the instruments that allow the Deep State to exercise its continuing sub rosa control of the US government . . .
2
If you had been a millionaire or billionaire or married to one, he would have let you take notes I am sure.
But like most of us, you are a laborer (although working in the White House) and he has no respect for anyone who does not have a lot of money. And I mean a lot...
12
ALL Patriots to the ballot box.
17
Thank you, Ms. Dorey-Stein, for your service to your country, and for sharing these sobering facts about the way our current President handles the truth. Trump lies so often that he even denies the videotapes and transcripts. But we just need to repeat them back, doggedly, over and over. This is a game of survival and wills.
13
what's the point of having Trump on record? He'll simply deny having said whatever it is that he'll be accused of saying, just like the Access Hollywood tape...clearly admitting to sexual assault ! If after the AH tape he is still just as popular as ever, then what's the point of recording him?
23
It is still,important to have the truth recorded. Truth will out, in the end.
10
Trump couldn’t set the record straight because he doesn’t believe in records.
21
Deep down, Trump knows he is a fraud. The narcisst lives in fear that this "secret" will be exposed somehow. He has bluffed his way through life, but the bluff stops here. He's all bluster and con and flim-flam. Putin knows this. Standing there yesterday, with his ignorance and puffery on display, for a nano-second I felt sorry for him. But, then I remembered that our country's future is in those little boy hands.
97
@Kathryn Thanks for describing Pres. Baby!
4
@Kathryn
I'm not sure 45 thinks that he is a fraud. On the contrary, he believes himself to be a standup guy, one that gives tough love, a man among wimps. He calls a spade a spade in street language, because he's the real deal, not fake like others.
He thinks that his instincts are golden, always correct, and he acts accordingly. He does no research and takes no advice; he stands on what he feels. Consequently, even at the age of 71, he really believes that he is a "very stable genius."
He's a malignant narcissist who has only the highest praise and confidence in himself. Luckily, he has no power. Oh, wait, yikes!
5
This has to be the darkest time in our nation's history. A country that runs on truth is being threatened by a real estate thug from New York.
May people like Ms. Dorey-Stein continue to write and speak out. May this nightmare be calmed in the elections of November 2018 and, then, finished by 2020.
918 days. 918 days.
63
@TSV
Putin is now emboldened, nay, all but nakedly invited to inflict further damage on the 2018 elections--the level of attack on truth, on voter rolls, on voter identity, on the voting machines themselves, is sure to escalate well beyond what was done in 2016. The lack of rebuke or deterrence to Putin is effectively an invitation from our President for Putin to escalate his attack.
I don't hold out much hope anymore for 2018. And based on those results, any elections that may or may not occur in 2020 will be as free and fair as Putin's last election was. The speed and breadth to which our democracy is already under attack is so breathtaking, it is clear most of the electorate is not properly fathoming it. We will wake up one day to having all our votes stolen without knowing what happened to us, just as 8 million people in Germany thought that those who warned about the alarming attacks on democratic norms in the 1930s were over-reacting.
Defending democracy does not simply meaning going to a ballot booth every couple of years. It means sounding a primal scream of warning in every possible forum to loudly decry the assault on truth, ultimately quite literally echoing our ancestor's cry, "Give me Liberty, or Give me Death!"
31
Beck.. love your book! And Trump can’t handle the truth!!! He lies better than my Persian rug.
22
We have over 60 million people in this Country, not willing to admit that it's 'kinda' suspicious that the President wanted no one present for his two-hour-plus meeting with the world's most ruthless and formidable dictator: the man who clearly helped him win the election, the man whose oligarch minions have kept his failing businesses afloat and the man who just might have a video or two of a hapless Mr. Trump's dalliances with Russian prostitutes.
So yes. He's afraid of anyone bearing witness to his activities.
48
Never forget that Trump's lawyers always attended meetings in pairs due to his well know proclivity for lying.
Can we get a copy of the Russian transcript of yesterday's tete a tete? It's likely the only record of Trump's complete and utter sell out to Putin.
29
"As he lies and breathes."
I submit the above as an all-purpose statement to describe our current president.
25
Donald J. Trump, quite frankly, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, no matter what his super sized ego tells him.
27
@ReconVet
His insecurity practically screams at you from his first appearance on TV to this day it has only gotten more pronounced.
I can only imagine what it was like to know him as a child and a young man before he got himself on TV but surely anyone with sense saw it because it is and AFAIK always has been the most obvious thing about him.
His brightness at whatever level it exists, is like all other parts of him subservient to his need/desire to compensate for that insecurity.
4
The only fake news about Trump comes from his mouth.
He lies incessantly about everything.
He is dishonesty personified and truth averse.
Like a true totalitarian, he desires propaganda not the accurate reporting and recording of news.
He is unfit and unqualified to occupy his office.
39
The most corrupt, deceitful, destructive and non- transparent presidency and Congress in the history of the United States of America!
Vote, even if you have to crawl to the voting booth!
61
Like all criminals, Trump wants no record of his activities. Same with Republicans, eight of whom went to Moscow on a July 4th treason tour to coordinate their next election heist with their Russian paymasters. No recordings, no transcript. And little or no coverage in the New York Times and other media outlets. Why?
43
We are faced with an extremely dangerous time. Con Don pathological liar supremo wants to run our great nation as a mafia. It is confirmed that he is a disciple of Vlad the thug because of the secrets kept by him. Con Don is scared of Vlad and the blackmail is working very well for the thug. Our nation is at seize. Our national security is compromised. Con Don has access to all of our secrets and plans. Now Vlad has access to them thru the child bully. Are there any Republican Patriots left? When will you open your eyes before our nation is hijacked by Soviet Union, the worst rogue nation in the world?
20
(1 of 2)
First - even talking to stenographers is akin to talking to chauffeurs and other sorts of gotcha informational dumpster-diving...
Second - this goes to a key government archiving system being about as systemic and technically integrated as the electronic health-care records systems in the US...
Third (part 1) - no corresponding outrage - except in the NYC FBI office, apparently - at Clinton's use of a private server...
Third (part 2) - the contents of same said private server were outrageous, regarding the gaming of the Democrat nomination...But there, folks act like the information - a la courtroom evidence - is inadmissible to the dialogue...Yet - it's somehow OK to leak anything Trump...And even embellish it salaciously...
…..
You all just don't get it...
Two years ago, folks were getting zero percent interest on their savings so Obama could print free money to give away stuff to non-working citizens and grateful and presumably soon-voting immigrants...
Two years ago, the prevailing economic wisdom - including the NYT resident economics whiz – was that US GDP was doomed and destined to grow at no more than two percent per year...
Two years ago, Health Care companies were raising prices outrageously - and opaquely - while moving their headquarters locations and/or their intellectual property ownership off-shore, for tax reasons...
@W in the Middle YOU don't get it..Obama had a photographer follow him around, not only documenting his working life but his private life - haven't you seen those photos? GDP is now growng at below 2.2%, AFTER the giveaway of huge permanent tax breaks and bringing in their hordes from abroad, at a historically low rate. GDP is continuing to fall. Hilaries e-mails has nothing to do with Trump. He was forced into keeping his recording his twitter rants, by a lawsuit! we got ONE e-mail record from Pruitt, this entire admin has been historically opaque..
23
The S&P 500 has yet to move beyond where it was when Trump tweeted it into a correction in late January. What market price recovery has occurred has been among the top companies (see the NASDAQ 100 performance) and that is mostly those companies buying back their own stock with repatriated offshore money. Wages are still down and not increasing in spite of record profits, but executive pay is hitting new highs. Most economists are predicting a recession no later than 2020.
By contrast - Obama inherited the end of the George Bush bubble created through deregulation of the home loan industry. He had to bail out giant companies to avoid Great Depression 2.0. By the time he left office the S&P 500 was 181% higher (1/20/2009 to 1/19/2017) than when it started - that includes having to go through an inherited crash to get back to that 181%
If you average his performance that is a 22% return per year.
Trump has so far managed a total of 23.7% from 01/20/2017 to present. That is on track for about 16% per year (rounding up). That is in spite of putting tax break steroids into the economy's veins and ballooning the national debt to new records to make it happen. Never mind that interest rate hikes will eventually slow growth and home ownership because that is necessary and normal. That said even the Trump FED is signaling they will have to slow down on increases now.
So, you just keep on telling those lies about Republicans and economic performance. Just leave Obama out.
28
Well, yeah, but I'd settle for seeing his tax returns.
And why, pray, do you think Russia chose Trump over Clinton in the US presidential hoss race? Was it because of his charming candor? His strangely compelling white-around-the-eyes tan? Was Russia jealous of his barber? I mean, why did Russia lift a finger to promote his candidacy?
As you stumble and mumble, lemme 'splain: Russia eagerly did darn near everything in its power to promote the Trump candidacy because it felt he was weaker than Clinton. Russia promoted Trump's candidacy because it felt he was more easily led than Clinton. Because for whatever the reasons—and there are plenty—one thing's for sure: It wasn't because of what's on his head, it was only because of what's in it.
8
Our Orwellian administration.
13
Thank you for this revealing article about our lying chief executive.
My comment is a paraphrase of a quote from the movie “The Graduate”
========
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: VOTE!
29
If only there was a stenographer present at the trump/Putin meeting!
20
What would you expect from a pathological liar and a corrupt cesspool administration?
The tapes and transcripts have likely been destroyed.
19
The Liar-in-Chief knows that any records are his enemy because they document his malfeasance and incompetence. His tax returns remain hidden, along with White House visitor logs, so that his corruption goes unchecked. Lock him up!
33
Trump is a common crook.
22
trump is a coward at heart; having his words recorded would show him to be the Liar most of us see him as.
Sadly, the red state sycophants who worship at his feet, as if he were the modern "Golden Calf" of the wayward Israelites can not seem to understand he is a False God.
21
Hopefully Michael Cohen has all of the tapes for his get out of jail free card
Can’t wait to read your book
16
Given Trump's aversion to being recorded it's surprising how much time he and his family members spend in Russia. Don't they record everything?
12
As bad as the press conference was, the secret meeting with Putin was likely worse, and we have no idea what Trump gave up, divulged, or agreed to, but bet on it, the Russians have a tape, and another lever to use on our compromised president.
54
Years ago, I had tutored for JCU Cairns. They then refused to pay me on the grounds that my contract with them was verbal. I wrote a formal letter of complaint to the Dean of the JCU Cairns campus, located at Smithfield. His secretary rang me. She told me the great man wanted me to go into his office to discuss my complaint. She told me he would not be replying in writing. I declined the Dean's invitation to attend. I knew by then from dealing with similar types at Adelaide TAFE In South Australia that this was the MO of these charlatans – plausible deniability because they put nothing in writing unless they have to.
Scam artists like Trump practise dishonesty as an art form. Trump would rather make a dollar from a scam than ten honestly from hard work.
It's why so many quite clever criminals end up in prison. Sure, they could have made far more money honestly – but where would be the fun of ripping people off and destroying their lives?
31
Colenso--I still keep paper records of everything. I always have the evidence.
4
wow
3
Keep no records, and you'll be fine. This may be why we don't see the tax returns.
9
@ChesBay are you sure there are any tax returns?
2
Hugh Robertson--Hahaha! Good question. But, if not, why hasn't he ended up in jail for tax evasion? Even if you don't owe any tax, you still have to file.
Seems pretty clear Trump understood perfectly the danger posed by stenographers, recording devices and the like. They provided a record of his daily inanities and calumnies against everyone else. Otherwise, why dislike them so much?
24
President Trump thrives on deniability. Verbatim recording of his on-the-record interactions with the press impairs his ability to deny them. But he's said enough on the record -- mainly via television -- that we know who he is and what he stands for. Tragically, his supporters remain indifferent to or defensive of what Trump says. He's unscripted, unruly, uncontrolled. They like him that way.
16
Bless you Ms. Dorey-Stein may your story become a major motion picture-
24
Donald is ill-equipped, ill-suited, ill-prepared and unfit to be president. He doesn't want the job described in the constitution, he wants the job he thought it was: an autocrat barking out impulsive orders and controlling government.
He also believes being presidential is something you do. It's not. It's something you are. And he isn't.
Someone has to remind Donald that he's on the public's dime. Everything he does is our business.
46
Imagine one day in the US when All of the media simply go on strike. Imagine not a word written or sound uttered about our so-called leader, best described as "Vanity Unfair."
Imagine.
9
DanIella Walsh--I have often wished that the media would go on strike, against HuckaSanders, and not show up for one of his "rallies."
4
Yes. If only.
2
Is this proof that Trump actually knows he is lying and that lying is wrong??
13
Any man with multiple bankruptcies or financial deals with an enemy Russian government, does not want a credible historic record of his statements to exist.
More so, any individual guilty of treason does not want any form of documentation.
17
I hope the balloon float of "Little Donnie" that circulated through Europe last week is allowed to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
43
@Accordion And near the Veterans Day show of force in DC in November!
6
Several have mentioned Trump's eventual presidential library.
Should it be located in Moscow or Guantanamo Bay?
37
It won't need much space so I think it could be a booth at a KFC in NYC.
6
KJ--I think there will be a big fight over whether, or not, there should be a "tRump library." (I vote NOT.) Times, and traditions, a have definitely changed, thanks to the Non-Reader-in-Chief. Maybe, East Jezzus, Nebraska?
2
It'll have to be a video library; I'm not convinced the ole boy can read.
3
Excellent column but I think it misses the basic point. Half the population already knows trump to be a serial liar and does not believe anything he says. The other half will believe everything he says regardless of what a recording, video or transcript says, since it is all fake news produced by the deep state conspiracy.
26
@D. Ben Moshe I think every American knows he's a liar. It's just that only about 40% are outraged and horrified by it, while 25% actually think it's great as long as it hurts the Democrats. That leaves about 15% who take a guilty pleasure supporting him, and another 15% who don't like him much but cynically think everyone lies. That leaves a remaining 5% of Americans so poisoned by their miserable lives that they just don't care.
The structure of Trump's approval polls haven't changed much in two years. Trump proved, as did the Nazis in 1932, that a third of the electorate can have a huge impact. The good news here is that there are far more 'outraged' than 'gleeful.' It's also why, I think, that Maxine Waters is right and Nancy Pelosi wrong. Social shaming is a very powerful tool of getting people to take responsibility. The cynical should be ashamed for assuming that lying is the norm; and guilty pleasure is a shameful excuse for lacking any moral integrity.
2
Thank you, Ms Dorey-Stein, for your comments. Too many "insiders" fail to make public the goings on behind the impenetrable wall around Trump.
Today Trump is complaining to his base that the reports of his pandering to Putin in Helsinki are "Fake News." Once again, he whines, the media is being bad to him. So sad.
It is sad. It's embarrassing that our president is the purveyor of his own construct: Fake News.
It is also sad that members of his base would pay heed to his nonsense any longer. They can see for themselves. No one needs the media to interpret what happened at the Putin/Trump mess conference in Helsinki. If they didn't watch or listen, media outlets are replaying large portions of the embarrassing conduct of the man who is supposed to be the leader of our country. Those excerpts are not doctored, although as one watches, they could be forgiven for thinking they were. Indeed the POTUS prostrated himself before Putin, as the world watched, showing himself to be the coward we all knew he was. Putin has more money and more power in his position than Trump has, so Trump is attempting to aggrandize himself in order to seek Putin's favor. I shudder to think why he does this.
He has embarrassed our country, damaged our world standing, questioned the sanctity of our fourth estate and intelligence community, and insulted our allies. He courts tyrants.
Do we need any more proof that "making America great again" is not at all Trump's intent?
He is truly Agent Orange.
18
Thank you Ms. Dorey-Stein for being a merchant of facts!
Facts are easy to verify, but most journalist report false facts made by important public figures as if they are relative.
It's simple to verify; Mr. Trump are you disputing Newton's Second Law of Motion, F=MA ? .... There is a 3 ton freight train traveling at 75 miles per hour, that is scheduled to arrive in a few minutes, would you or anyone in you entire administration, like to prove this fact to be false?
3
Trump has based his presidency on a structure made of lies. That's why he hates stenographers.
30
Armando--Thank goodness for the internet, and twitter.
2
@ChesBay ah but Twitter is full of non truths, i.e. read Mr. Trumps
EW--Yes, but everything he tweets is an official record, and evidence as I see it.
“There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real.”
James Salter
5
I presume that Beck is no longer employed at the White House.
1
Congress has evidence of enough lies to haul him before a committee, play the recordings and demand some answers, yank his security clearance, demand a "chaperone" with other heads of state, etc.
Do Something, Congress.
32
Trump's "truth tellers" are Kellyanne and Sarah Huckabee.
25
Ms. Dorey-Stein's editorial is a welcome one. It deserves thought and reflection--the role of truth in the rise of Mr. Trump. As Dorey-Stein writes, truth is one of Trump's principal adversaries, and he is afraid of it. No other president has had their own propaganda media conglomerate. No other president has lied so many times. The "big lie"--Hitler's term for the propaganda method adopted by Trump and his mentors--is killing the democratic soul of the nation. The reactionary untruths of racial resentment, xenophobia, and misogyny--in short, white nationalism--are what Trump feeds his base, and what they never fail to adore him for. Never before have so many been taken in by a dishonest grifter like Trump.
(One wonders whether it is a violation of the various official records acts for there to be no stenographer present?)
7
Americans need to start asking themselves and others why such a large portion of the electorate supports a president who openly and boldly lies about issue after issue. Why do they love a complete and utter liar? What happened to American values? What will our children learn from this behavior? What will future political hopefuls learn from this behavior?
12
It’s called plausible deniability. Trump wants the truth to be only what he says it is at any particular moment. He comes from the shady side of the business world and is used to worrying about culpability as part of his daily routine.
Trump even tears the few documents he allows to cross his desk into tiny pieces. Unbeknownst to him, his staff then collects them from the trash and reassembles them to comply with the federal records act.
Every day, in every way, this man acts guilty and lies about it. He’ll no doubt start Tuesday’s lies by revising the account of his recent European visit and Russian ‘summit.’
Worst president, ever.
52
Is there any way to obtain the notes of the translators during the one-on-one between Trump and Putin? Could a subpoena for issued to them to obtain copies or does Trump have absolute power to silence his discussions with our adversary to forever esconce their words into the dust bins of Helsinki? Are their conversations not considered to be part of the annals of the historic summit?
We the American people deserve to know the content of their private talks as they may shed light on our very real understanding of the threats to our democracy.
Why wasn't it even required as standard protocol before the one-on-one long before it even took place? Does our autocratic president determine alone the format of that scenario? Why were his aides and advisors left completely out of the process or did they just succumb to their bullying master's wishes as is so often the case.
Recordings will always trump fake news if only they were to be released undoctored to the public- a highly unlikely proposition.
52
I am pretty sure there is a recording of the meeting...the Russians have it.
13
@HMP Is there maybe please hope-to-die chance that the room had secret recording devices in it?????
1
Any recording device is most assuredly in possession of Russian intelligence to be used in the future for their strategic purposes. This begs the question of what our own counter Intelligence also possess. I find it implausible to believe that they do not also have first hand knowledge of the information shared during the one-on-one meeting. I am confident in our agencies unlike Mr. Trump.
1
Trump's entire career was one of shady deals at (or beyond) the edge of legality. To do that, he needed to have deniability - and to have that he needed no records and as few witnesses as possible. The one-on-one meeting with Putin is just the last case in point.
72
President Trump does not want a record of his words for the same reason he wanted his "main event" meeting with Putin to be "principals only" (with translators). This allows him to proffer whatever self-serving - and likely contradictory - version of events subsequent developments require without having to invoke the "fake news" mantra in the face of a definitive transcript (as was the case last week when he deemed his criticisms of Prime Minister May to The Sun "fake news" despite the existence of a recording of the interview).
32
A well written opinion. Trump does not accept the fact that as president he is an employee of the American people. Everything he says and does as president should be subject to review and examination by his employer; the American people. He is not some autocrat like Putin or Kim who control and repress the people of North Korea or Russia and not answerable to them.
85
...or is he?
2
The last thing Trump wants is anything that smells like accountability.
This is what I don't get: the press has given Trump free wheel to lie at whim, which is all the time.
Why, when the reporter from The Nation was frog marched out of the room before the Trump-Putin press conference, did the entire press corp, not get up and leave en mass?
Why do they cover his rallies as if they are newsmakers, follow his castigations of anyone who questions his actions or motivations?
27
Two incidents early in the Trump reign told us all we really need to know about Fearless Leader.
In the first, Trump fumed and spewed about the size of his inauguration audience. Photographic evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, Trump insisted that his crowd was the biggest, the best, the most splendiferous in history. He demanded that his entire entourage stick to that demonstrably false claim, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. It was 'The Emperor's New Clothes' in spades.
In the second, Trump insisted that he had won the popular vote, because 'millions of fraudulent votes' had been cast for 'Crooked Hillary.' Not a scintilla of evidence ever supported that claim. When asked about it during a televised interview, Trump resorted to the 'some people say this' theory: if there are people willing to repeat a lie, then there must be at least a grain of truth to the lie, and further investigation will prove the lie is true. Thus we had the bogus Voter Fraud Committee, which found nothing and eventually disbanded, after attempting to badger states into producing personal information about millions of voters. And as with the 'crowd size' issue, the entire Trump entourage propounded the 'fraudulent votes' lie.
'Alternative facts.' 'It's a matter of opinion, and the President has his own opinion.' Every dodge imaginable, all to avoid the simple truth staring us in the face: The Emperor isn't wearing any clothes.
42
If he says it, that’s what’s true, not some transcription. Who ya gonna trust, him or someone who makes their living getting things right? Welcome to the Fox/Reality form of government.
12
Just another example of Trump's total disrespect for our country, our intelligence agencies, you fill in the blanks...the real question is why Congress is doing nothing to stop him and his treasonous actions. They are acting like the proverbial lemmings, blindly following him off the cliff, while endangering us all. Truly terrifying and looking more and more like Germany in the mid 1930's.
Do NOT neglect to vote!
23
Trump says, "They are so, so unfair to me. They are writing down everything I say. Sad."
4
Is there atill an office w/stenographers in this White House? Obviously, for Trump going rogue is the way he rolls. Watching Trump w/Putin the major difference to me seemed to me his obsequiosness and deference to the man who helped the 2016 election go to Trump. We shall all continue to wait for the final result from Mueller. That investigation draws only contempt and drumbeats from Trump's "base" base and their continuing devotion to this con, liar and opportunist.
7
Trump happens to be a crime family boss who got himself elected president. When you appreciate him in this way, all of the behaviors become self-explanatory.
23
Trump is such a proven liar that it should be news if he ever actually says something true. His twitter blabberings should not be considered statements from our WH.
34
The much quoted statement from Patrick Moynihan, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." Donald hates that idea. Donald's opinion IS the facts so he would love to suppress all facts so that his opinion reigns.
Get rid of the stenographers so he can decide what was said. Fire all scientists at the EPA and global warming will disappear. Get rid of the CBO, so that he can describe how wonderful his tax bill and demolition of the ACA will be. He got rid of any real economist on his staff so that the vast success of his tax bill at raising wages and promoting more better, jobs can be described properly, by him. (Real wages dropped in the last year.)
He just hates it when someone comes up with a recording of something that he really said. Not to worry; his base listens only to him anyway. His opinions have become the country's facts.
68
Since Trump keeps such scant records of his presidency, the Trump Presidential Library will doubtlessly be a modest affair.
Oh, I forgot! The library will need two major wings to display exiled statues of Southern Civil War Generals and other white supremicist memorabilia.
16
@Andrew G. Bjelland, Sr. The library will be empty.
3
@Margo Channing=as I have said before, I think trump's library will be located in the gift shoppes of his golf resorts, next to the balls.
1
Today trump is pushing a false narrative about his Putin meeting. He hates the truth.
5
Once again, this goes back to the lack of transparency with the Trump administration - no stenographers, no visitor logs, etc.
9
Thank you founders for the First Amendment to the Constitution. Despite Trump's attacks of the free press and his tiresome and idiotic tweets, the time is coming when he will be a mere blip in the dustbin of history. For the present, let us pray that he won't bring the nation down to his level.
23
@Diogenes - Trumpo says, "The constitution has always been so, so unfair to me and to my family."
1
This is a really interesting and enlightening article. Stenographers provide an invaluable service, and Trump's disdain for their role is just par for the course in his rejection of a free and open government. I do take exception with one statement, however. Ms. Dorey-Stein wrote, " Our job, after all, was to provide a first line of defense against the press by being present whenever a reporter was in the same room as the president." I woud hope their job is to be a first line of defense against INACCURACY on either side, press or president. I reject the idea that the president or anyone needs defense against the press. Mistakes happen, as we all know. However, I believe accuracy far outweighs any evidence that the press is a negative force to be defended against.
16
Trump must be following the advice of a political boss from Boston who said:
“Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink”.
(After yesterday's fiasco in Helsinki, an update for the Trump presidency: Never speak.)
60
@NA
And it was recorded on film that he did wink at Putin. Wonder what secret agreement he was winking about? Nothing good for America, I'm sure.
Jeez, yet another way Trump is utterly bizarre as a president. This presidency is so ridiculous that our 12-year-old grandson is well-enough versed in Trump's simple-minded words and deeds to entertain us adults with spot-on impersonations of him. It would be totally hilarious if it weren't for the horrifying fact that Trump is President of the United States of America and leader of the free world.
21
@LemmiTelliaspanky is not leader of the free world.
1
@LemmiTellia I am willing to bet your 12 y/o grandson has a better grasp as reality and an advanced vocabulary that surpasses our current resident in the WH. He'll go far.
3
It would seem so much easier to run a presidency in good faith, cognizant that your every word and every decision will go down in history no matter what, and to want everything memorialized. Especially when one considers that history will be a cold judge in the fullness of time, one would want to ensure that the very things one said and did were documented in excruciating detail.
Innocent people don't shy away from the disinfectants of truth. Traitors do, as do con men, sexual predators, thieves, money launderers, tax evaders, racists, xenophobes, and Machiavellian amoral politicians.
48
Trump's biggest mistake was leaving a country where he could control the media. It is a fact that Trump is only comfortable in environments he has total control over.
Once overseas, he had no control over the international press. They don't care for his guff. Exposure to the world media proved more about Trump than nearly two years in the shelter of his American media bubble.
Advice Donald: Avoid going out in the wild. You go rogue, say the first thing that comes to mind, true or false, and make an embarrassment of yourself. Or should I say, more of an embarrassment.
49
The American people elected this President and the American people set standards of behavior and recording for posterity. Trump is simply ignoring all precedents in total disregard of what the Presidential role demands. And he underscored this aberrant behavior with his Putin meeting. Basically, he is not meeting the rules dictated by the American people. Maybe we should just simply follow Trump's saying: you're fired, as any employee not fulfilling his duties.
14
Excuse me for the reminder:
Those who voted cast roughly 3 million more ballots for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump.
The Electoral College failed its original function to overrule votes of ill-educated isolated men to select a candidate capable of, at the least, stepping into the Oval Office and putting together a functional government. Of course that part of the Constitution was written when the top vote-getter in the EC became President, and #2 became Vice President and president of the Senate.
Part 2 of the system was amended, but the EC stayed, because once a state, no matter its population was given equal representation in the Senate and two extra votes in The EC, no senator - or representative from a state which has onr House vote and two Senate votes, more power than deserves would ever vote for reform.
And, as can be seen just in county vote patterns in California, Pennsylvania or Alabama: the farther one lives from a well-integrated environments, the more likely one is to see collections of disparate minorities as a single Evil Giant opposed to all ‘real Americans’ believe is right and a threat to their special privileges.
So the power-boosted rural lands become fertile land for fear-monger demagogues, even one who claims their faith, one he doesn’t accept.
Result: the EC, gave the Presidency to the popular vote loser, a man whose book calls lying, cheating and swindling to increase personal wealth virtues, “The Art of the Deal”.
Simple truth is:
1-Tump is afraid of the truth.
2-Trump rejects facts.
3-Trump preys on the ignorant in order to wield power.
Of course he doesn't want to be recorded.
91
It has become quite apparent that Trump does NOT want any ‘paper trails’ or anyone to report on the lies and exaggerations he spews forth, after he meets one-on-one with various world leaders. His lies and exaggerations are also his ‘themes’ at various Rallies (thank Goodness at
Rallies, there is Press Coverage). Hence, unlike those who preceded him as President, he does NOT have a note taker or another staffer in these various meetings. He wants HIS lies to be HIS ‘truth’ to Americans and others. We know he cannot be trusted!
Trump can only be named “Champion Liar of The World” – it has been a life-long ‘habit’ of his. As the Champion Liar, he is also the “Champion Deceiver”.
Regarding the 69-million who voted FOR him, are they also Liars and Deceivers???
14
@betty sher his followers would likely put this behavior into the bucket of, "Liberals, stop over-reacting. Trump is here to shake things up. He is not going to do what those before him did". I've noticed the "over-reaction" theme a lot more in the comments areas of various media lately . Not sure if that is our Russian friends/bots, or the latest trump-splaining from his supporters or whatever. Instead of acknowledging there is an issue or presenting facts to refute an issue, people are falling back on "Liberals are over-reacting". At least they are past, "We won, get over it snowflake"! It is another form of denial that they made the wrong decision by voting for him and/or that Trump could make a mistake.
3
I had a boss like this. A congenital liar, like Trump. People started recording her conversations. Amazingly, just like Trump, she'd stick with the lie even in the face of incontrivertable evidence. That's what you're dealing with here. Is it a lie if he believes it?
42
Whoa! Here is yet another indictment of Trump, to be added to the seemingly endless amount, by a patriotic American. Thank you, Ms. Dorey-Stein and the NYTimes for highlighting your report. How many hideous observations will (not may) be added to that growing amount before this guy gets nailed? Boy, did she ever put it exactly correct--the only enemy that Trump has is the truth about him.
47
"It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth."
And the truth is also the adversary of Trump's base. The base voted for Trump because he is just like them. Believe whatever suits you, whatever benefits you in the moment. 2+2 = 3 today, but it may equal 5 tomorrow...or 5 million. Power means never having to bow to the truth. Power is the ability to make up the truth as needed.
What is the point of stenographers when someone doesn't care what they said 5 minutes ago. The only thing that counts is what they are saying now. Of course, in 5 minutes, that won't count either.
The Trump base is not "hung-up" on reality. They are faith based. They create their own reality. They create their own truth. They create their own reasoning. They can rationalize any position because they can take opposite sides from one minute to the next. Whatever benefits them in the moment. And so...they love Trump because he "truly" represents them.
Truth and accuracy...are for losers, are for people who don't have power. Therefore, Trump has no need for stenographers.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
82
So well said !!! Thank you for your very articulate response !!!
Trump wants the ability to rewrite history. That's why he doesn't want people recording him in any manner. For someone whose mental and emotional development ended in high school, he wants to be able to say "that's not what I said" even though everyone present heard him say that. That's how immature he is.
He always must look good. Anything positive about him is hyperbole. Anything negative is "fake news." (Did I mention that he still acts like he's in high school?)
Every time he says "that's what I've heard" or "that's what people have told me" he is making something up just because he wants it to be true and is trying to make it true.
Take, for instance, his insistence that he had the biggest inauguration crowd in history. Visually and factually false, yet he kept repeating it.
This is why he loves Putin. He wants to be Putin.
Anything out of Putin's mouth is gospel. Anyone who disagrees with Putin might disappear.
That's the world Trump wants to live in.
44
@Joe. As a retired teacher I wish to disagree. Donald Trump's maturity appears to have ended before he reached high school. He's more like an 8th grader.
2
@Semi-retired - that is insulting 8th graders - most are much more mature. Most also know the difference between lies and the truth.
@Joe
You give Trump too much credit. His emotional development ended at 2 years old. He's never ceased having temper tantrums.
2
Without recording devices or “stenos” and only two translators, we and the world have absolutely no way of knowing what secrets and information our traitor president delivered to his Master. Think about that, Congress!
32
@B. Rothman What we might do is ask the Russians for a transcript of the one-on-one meeting Trump had with Putin. Russian news sources have several times before reported back-channel Trump-Russian contacts and conversations--when someone translates those Russian news sources, the U.S. discovers what our own President is doing and saying (for example: The secret meeting Trump had with Lavrov and another Russian in the Oval Office in early 2017; Russian press revealed it, not ours). It's worth a shot, now that Putin is willing to "help" Robert Mueller's team with the Russian-interference investigation.
6
@B. Rothman I agree. And... I would not want to be either translator.
"If the president is the victim of so much inaccurate reporting, why is he so averse to having the facts recorded?"
----------------
To begin, he's certainly aware of the media's tendency to take every opportunity to portray him in the worst possible light, often—not always, but quite often—by mischaracterizing him and his agenda through clever linguistic tactics (euphemisms, dysphemisms), framing techniques, selective elisions, and so on.
He is most certainly aware of Jim Rutenburg's (NYT) pre-election call to arms, in which he advised journalists to "throw out" the standards of objectivity and impartiality that had governed their craft for nearly a century. Why? Because in his opinion Mr. Trump is "abnormal" and "potentially dangerous." That opinion, however, is very much open to debate. As it should be—in the pages of a newspaper where opinions are to be found.
But national newspapers with a leftist bent, like the New York Times and Washington Post, now regularly publish ostensibly journalistic articles oozing with personal or partisan bias.
Mr. Trump is an unusual personality and an unusual president, but he is not insane in wanting to keep his distance from today's self-anointed scribblers of the truth.
2
Whatever one’s opinion of the news media, a stenographer is a recorder, not a reporter. Mr. Trump’s paranoia about the news media should not extend to those whose job it is to record history so as to avoid the very concerns he continues to raise about how unfairly he is treated by the news media.
55
You didn't make an argument, you just said the media was biased against him. Try harder
4
@Jason He's the President. His words matter. They need to be recorded. The story isn't about the media, but about the people who write down the words as spoken. You deliberately conflated that with the media. Fake news?
6
White House stenographers in this Administration deserve combat pay.
35
Trump is a mistake.
We all know it.
We made a mistake.
Let's call him President Mistake.
A mistake, like when you get distracted and miss your freeway exit.
A mistake, like not paying attention while cutting an onion - you bleed.
A mistake, like allowing a disgusting cousin with no manners, brains or hygiene to stay at your home.
Nothing will be right till he's gone, gone, gone.
Get out you horrible mistake.
So things can be normal again.
Blessed normal again.
36
@Paul King NO, WE did not make a mistake. I did not vote for this charlatan. I knew better.
6
He lies. You publish it. He points out that you publish lies but does not mention that he said them/i the source. He calls his recorded statements fake news, demonstrating that newspapers are full of lies. His base is happy. Treasonous traitor Trump is still Putin's president puppet. The GOP does nothing (lip service doesn't count).
For him to continue in office we need to charge each person in congress who supports him with aiding and abetting a traitor.
The GOP will burn him after another "conservative" judge with a dishonest agenda is added to SCOTUS.
15
There are no facts to stenograph, Ms. Dorey-Stein. Facts have become quaint irrelevances. Now, it is all spin, don't you know, and a fine stenographer can hardly find a fact to stenograph. Anywhere.
9
Well duh. There is no official record of what the President says. So when someone else says "you did say that, we have it recorded" the Lap Dog in Chief can say you edited that, that's fabricated, that's "fake news". And what happens? NOTHING. This is the post truth world. Get use to it. Learn the game, then play the game. Stop whining and start winning.
13
Con-men never want their lies documented.
43
facts are dangerous to liars
38
The stunningly outrageous thing about Trump is not only that he lies, but he lies about his lies, saying that he has proof that he never lied. And then he calls those who have held his feet to the fire, liars. He is an abomination, plain and simple.
40
I am sorry that the Times ran this as an opinion piece. It would have been better to delete the last sentence and run it as a news story.
20
Trump uses speech like a used car salesman- he aims for an immediate effect- truth be damned.
He thinks he can cleverly flip flop, deny or cry foul to cover his loose lips.
Loose lips sink ships, of course.
He considers accountability, accurate reporting and facing his own thoughtless ('bold') blather as hostile attacks on him personally.
His stern father found Donald so irresponsibly loose that he sentenced him to military boarding school. It did not help.
9
Good article. Sorry you are so disrespected by this fake President. I am confident after he is thrown out of office the next President will welcome you and your professionalism.
11
Trump has much to hide.
And he operates like a Mob boss, as he learned from Roy Cohn and his other Mobster clients.
Meanwhile, Mueller is closing in. Very soon we will know who the unnamed Americans are in his indictments.
The truth will come out.
Vote Democratic on November 6th.
Every seat, every office.
Changing Congress is our best hope.
Vote.
15
@D. DeMarco Some mob men are actually honorable, this potus is not. Not by any stretch, and please all stop with the derogatory leanings towards Italians. You wouldn't do it with any other ethnic group. Thanks in advance.
1
@Margo Channing
?? roy cohn was Jewish.. tis writer said nothing about italians. I agree most associate the word mafia with Italians but the educate know there are russian, chinese, Jewish mafiosos, etc...
who is going to subpoena the translators at the private Putin-Trump meeting in Finland?
did the prez have an American translating the Russian? or did Putin supply him with a translator?
13
Is this a joke? Of course he hates stenographers, because they actually record what was said, which might interfere with his ability to lie about it later.
11
When a person fully intends, in advance to lie, cheat and steal then why on earth would they want a stenographer recording every word - she would be a witness to criminal conspiracy.
11
This narrative is as convicing as anything reported.
It's unlikely however, that Trump dead enders will allow it to speak for itself: Made up story, fake news, agrieved liberal, anry Democrat, hostile former employee, etc.; possibly to be well represented in these comments.
Now the president has revealed himself again, this time so explicity, as a traitorous rogue, a malignant representation of the worst human behaviours, squarely at the controls of our government.
Who else must step forward to sound another alarm?
12
Its become abundantly clear that the news is real and the president is fake.
52
Trumps means to tell people they are supposed 'Fake the News' a.k.a.
ACCEPT my Lie
3
"It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth."
As noted, it's a bit harder for Trump to credibly deny reality when it's been recorded. He'll do it anyway and then deny that the record shows what it shows, but it's just more difficult for him to be taken seriously by anyone outside his cult of deplorables.
6
What is one of the defining issues and mysteries of candidate and president Trump? Unlike every other presidential aspirant, he refused to release his tax records. He doesn’t read his daily briefings, much less anything else, nor does he have even the slightest knowledge of history, another kind of record. He has long belittled Christopher Steele’s dossier, a record of his sordid shenanigans in Moscow. He takes the hearsay and heresies of Vladimir Putin over the indictments and documents of his own justice department and intelligence agencies. One of his defenses against the Steele file is that he is a “germophobe”. He seems to be as much of a logophobe when it comes to anything written on paper, much less in stone.
The late, great author James Salter once wrote, “There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real”. Which might explain why this fake president wants nothing more than to have his surreal corruptions and mendacities forever scrubbed from his-story.
8
During Trump's 542 days in office, I've heard, and read, the assertion of many that, although the president is ethically challenged, he's "intelligent."
Not.
For as long as I've had to stomach news about this Oaf (ever since the '70s, when he was first exposed as an enfant terrible), I've realized that his brain is as challenged as his ethics.
Which is to say that this splendid (and frightful) article by Beck Dorey-Stein just reinforces my long-held assertion. Trump is, indeed, an Imbecile.
32
After watching Trump ridiculing so many from so many walks of life....from ..women to immigrants to Gold Star Families to former POW's etc..how is it so many American voters chose to elect the man ! Why have the Republicans done nothing to stop Trump's destructive behavior? Why has the voice of reason...from the so called Main Stream Media...to former government leaders ..to the FBI etc. not been heeded?? We are being misled and lied to from the very top of our government ! The Trump Train seems to just run unregulated. Why do we choose to be deceived....why...is the.. Truth.. having such a tough time being believed? Did we as a nation really want it this way? We have gotten to the point where comedians are calling Air Force One and tricking Congressmen into fake interviews. Our credibility is in question. Do we want to know the Truth ?? Congress and more importantly the public need to speak out and act ! The media outlets need to keep up the pressure and continue to proclaim the TRUTH ! We as a nation have important choices to make..will we choose Truth...or ..Lies !
9
In every action, large or small, it is clear that Trump has something to hide. Yet we keep on acting like he’s a normal President. Can we finally just call him what he is? A charlatan and a fraud.
17
If any of Trump's supporters cared about the actual facts, they would not have voted for Trump in the first place. Those Americans who voted for Trump did so from pure gut feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, shame, and humiliation. There were enough facts already on the table at the time of the election that Trump was dishonest, vindictive, narcissistic, ignorant as to policy, prone to ad hominem attacks, xenophobic, and sexist. If they could ignore the reams of evidence back at the time of the 2016 election then I do not think more evidence will change their minds. They seem to discount any facts that do not accord with their gut feelings.
13
isn't the author subject to any kind of non disclosure agreement?
2
@fme Why should she be? She is a public employee. She works for you. You have a right to know about her work. She has revealed nothing classified. One would think a candidate for president might educate himself or herself about the issues of public information before taking office.
17
That's what you took away from the article?
3
He also refused to take stenos with him to his meetings with Kim Jong Un and with Putin. He wants no records so that he can lie as much as he wants. Isn't there some law about documenting the presidency that can be enforced here??
15
Trump's lies are so prolific they will fill the largest Presidential "Lie-brary" in history.
18
Gee, if I didn't know better I'd think he had something to hide.
19
It’s not complicated. Trump lies as a matter of habit and as a matter of strategy, as a matter of manipulating people. He knows he’s a liar, and anyone with 1/100 of a brain knows he’s a constant liar, even his supporters. It’s who he is, and this piece is just another obvious demonstration of this. He wants deniability in all situations but all he does is lie. We must not get a warped sense of reality. It’s the most dangerous tactic he is selling.
The logic one needs to reconcile to support this man is amazing. He is so obviously corrupt and untrustworthy, morally bankrupt. If you were a Republican crowing about Clinton’s immorality (I was) and you’re supporting Trump your hypocrisy is laid bare for all to see. There’s no screaming denial that passes.
5
This is exactly why we should believe NOTHING of what was reported to have been discussed in Helsinki. Not because the reporters are promoting fake news, but because the participants have a history of not telling the truth. And that is why Don the Con didn't want anyone else in the room. The press conference was more than enough to destroy any confidence in the meeting.
6
Ms. Dorsey-Stein is providing important context about Trump’s Administration even before the Inauguration. The Trump team rebuffed even learning the basics of how the offices in the White House worked on a functional level, choosing secrecy at every level. More than arrogant, which it surely was, deception and deniability were the necessities of the Trump Administration as they took power. We have certainly learned they have much to hide, suspect what we know is the tip of the iceberg. Let’s hope ‘a change in climate’ is melting that iceberg at a rapid pace after Helsinki.
6
As Comey said "I hope there are tapes". Wishful thinking - over the years Trump has never documented anything that could be used against him.
6
Clearly, democracy as implemented here in the US has some major flaws in it that have allowed an administration to be formed that treats the executive branch as a secretive operation that is nobody's business but the President's. The whole reason the Framers created the first Amendment was that they recognized the importance of a truthful transparency to check despotic and corrupt power bases. Trump has managed to obviate all of that.
Of course even if there were laws that forced this administration to record all meetings and ensure a truthful transparency in governance, Trump and his above-the-law attitude would likely ignore whatever he didn't agree with, just as he has done with his conflict of interest entanglements.
This is an intolerable situation, one which the Constitution did not foresee. It is a hole in our system that needs to be plugged.
1
This is what deep, insidious, institutional corruption looks like. Bad actors chip away at structures and procedures that keep people honest, all the time complaining about how distracting and bothersome they are. Quite quickly, we are faced with a situation where all we have is "he said-she said" in which the central character in this sad skit can claim "fake news!" at the drop of a quote. This is an excellent tell-tale for what this Administration's real modus operandi really looks like. Don't we have public records laws that should keep these stenographers in the room whenever the POTUS speaks?
9
Why the concern about accuracy and misquoting when half of what the current president says is not only unsubstantiated, but a flat out lie or fabrication?
Stenographers are anchored in accuracy and recording the truth, which is only a fleeting shadow at the periphery of this man's awareness.
Don't get discouraged nor retire, since I'm hopeful that truth will return soon.
7
"....why is he so averse to having the facts recorded?"
Because then HE can set the narrative.
I grew up with guy, who, someone else once said of him "You know if he's involved there's something he knows that you don't and he's not going to tell you.
1
I thought stenography went out with fountain pens and manual typewriters.
What do you suppose they use to record proceedings in the courtroom?
@sharon5101
2
This is very simple, the man is a lair. So of course he would not want to recorded. Without being on record he can always say he did not say that.
1
Trump is a control manic. He tries to control reality so it matches what he wants it to be. Remember the inaugural crowd size and the rain? He tries to control people and if they don’t reflect what he wants he tosses them out. Thanks for this insightful commentary. Trump’s worst enemy is the truth. But truth will have the last word.
8
The resolution on the image is rather poor. Is that stenography advanced Gregg? It doesn't appear to be Pittman or Forkner. Where does someone get training in Gregg anymore? And what's her list of short forms for new terms that don't appear in the old Gregg dictionaries?
"She also surmised we would not be needed often because “there would be video,” which is why the Trump press office did not have a stenographer present when the NBC News anchor Lester Holt interviewed him."
Where are the videos?
2
@Rebecca
NBC has them. They have been played since the interview to prove he said, that thing with trump, that Russher thing...
3
This is very telling:
"In my five years with President Obama, off-the-record discussions with reporters happened after work hours — not for an hour in the middle of the work day, and certainly not before an interview. "
3
well, we know that whatever was said during those "private" two hours was recorded by the Russians.
6
We now certainly MARCH FOR OUR LIVES...MARCH FOR TRUTH!
5
@David J Voting will be more effective.
2
@Jerry Attrich Why not both?
He denies even recorded statements. Remember the Access Hollywood tapes? He said they were fake!!! He has no notion of what honor means or is. But kudos to him. His supporters in the GOP love him so dearly all the same.
7
@Alfred Yul
VOTE OUT THE GOP/NRA
2
In openning on tha T May Sun interview this quote stood out. (And it is not new for donnie)
“He denied ever having said them and declared that recordings of the interview would vindicate him. “
Of course the tapes proved he said exactly what the Sun reported. Yet I honestly feel that he simply invents his own memory. He rambles/babbles then when when confronted often seems to create his own “corrected” memory. He simply rewrites the tape and invents the “reality” he prefers.
Only Rep to win Wisconsin? Yup.
Inaugural crowd size ? Yup
I honestly believe don the con cons himself into believing a self created memory. And once he creates that memory it is FACT to him. Scary stuff folks.
5
Wow, very interesting ... and sad. Thanks for sharing.
1
Simply put -- he's dirty.
And needs to be removed from office.
13
The problem, Ms Dorey-Stein—
Is that with Trump you are dealing with an individual who is essentially functionally illiterate. That doesn't "stenograph" too well.
His vocabulary is profoundly small, often puerile. His attention span is breathtakingly short. He mainly re-acts and jabbers. Often with a type of "-lalia" where he keeps repeating his own single syllable words.
9
Trump can't handle the truth -- to speak it, to hear it, to live it. It has always been thus. Only, once upon a time, the whole U.S. was not caught in the tangle of his lies and deceit.
6
This is probably the most revealing article of Trump administration! It discloses the disregard and distortion of the factual truth or the fear of the truth. Trump is a criminal threat to American democracy of the likes not witnessed in my life time.
9
Trump does not want to be recorded because he lies.
5
[watching himself crash into the ship's console while fast-forwarding through Spaceballs: The Movie video cassette]
Dark Helmet: No, no, no. Go past this. Pass this part. In fact, never play this again.
1
Is anyone surprised by his and his staff's behavior?
3
Every time I read stories like this, I wonder how this man ever got elected as President of the United States? The only reality he accepts is a false reality of conceit that he concocts in his lying brain.
Needless to say, chaos and anarchy are the result.
More to the point, the People are the last bulwark against such a reckless and unsuitable man attaining such overwhelming power.
One can only hope that the democratic process will work this time in November.
6
@Richard Gordon, We need to get rid of the electoral college, a long outdated system for electing our president. It was supposed to give fair weight to votes from rural, lessor populated states. In this day and age, it has disenfranchized at least 3 million voters.
6
No transcript and little paper trail is the technique of the grifter, the shady businessperson.
It helps them duck legal challenges. No records? Nothing to be used against them in court.
This is clearly a technique Trump has used for decades. Unfortunately for him, it appears Michael Cohen kept a lawyer's paper trail.
5
Yes, please, record the President whenever possible.
3
Why record the facts when the president will simply deny them and his far-right sycophants will agree with him that reality is actually unreality, that up is actually down, that a lie is the truth when their chief utters it? The president suffers from a profound and dangerous disconnect from the real world. Show him the transcripts or play him the videos and he will tell you about his "unprecedented" inauguration crowds and his "historic" electoral college victory and how a "Pakistani gentleman" is hiding the "server." He is intellectually, emotionally and mentally unfit for office. There's a remedy and a solution for this cancer: 25th Amendment, Section 4, Paragraph 1.
9
Having a stenographer needs to be mandatory and not an option. It shouldn’t be up to a current resident to opt out.
11
It doesn't matter what is recorded when he can spin the statement later and explains it as bragging or lying on purpose. The "grabbing" women's genitals tape was spun as "locker room talk," in other words, lying. It's not teflon, it's an alternate reality where he can always claim later, it was bragging or wishful thinking. How about, "repeal and replace"? "With something far better"! Really, his biggest lie so far, (repeated and recorded hundreds of times.) This lie, has boiled down, to just something politicians say to get elected. No one really believes it. (Except millions of people on Obamacare.) Remember, Obama, haughtily, raised rates on the ACA just ten days before the election! Who were those people going to believe, the guy who just raised your rates, or the guy claiming he was going to lower them?
Nixon said he had a "secret plan" to get us out of the Vietnam war. There was never any plan, he later admitted. "It's just something you say to get elected." It's saying the right thing, at the right moment.
3
There is strong circumstantial evidence for a treason charge against Trump, ie not responding to Russia hacking the 2016 election ie cyber warfare.
It would be like FDR after the attack on Pearl Harbor going to the Congress and say it never happened, it's all fake news.
The problem is you can't legally prove it, since the constitution requires two witnesses on any one incident.
Trump is no dummy traitor. He know this and it is the reason he will always talk to Putin in person without witnesses except trusted Russian translators.
2
The problem isn't proof, it's the requirement that an "enemy" be given aid or comfort. Russia is not an enemy for treason purposes unless there is open war between it and the U.S.
@Dubious--thank you for your reply.
A cyberwar is hostilities. Almost anything in the constitution it is subject to interpretation.
That is why we have a Supreme Court.
The problem as I mentioned is proof. There are no witnesses in the room when Trump is alleged to be selling out America.
Trump prefers his version of reality.
6
Hope Hicks was disastrously unprepared for her job, confusing communications with PR.
6
Ms. Stein, the president is going to be very unhappy that you wrote about this issue. :)
1
Shame on you, there is a good reason he doesn't like microphones near his face - he is germophobic - can't tell where that microphone has been and what dastardly microbes it may harbor, could even result in his hair falling out. Too bad he's not as concerned about: Putin, immigration abuse, infrastructure, tax relief, social justice, European allies, North Korea, his taxes (remember those), etc., etc. But just keep that microphone far away from POTUS - but have no fear, not a chance you'll ever capture a kernel of truth or, sad to say, any hint of concern for anyone other than himself.
3
Excellent piece.
5
Trump's adversary: the truth.
Wow! Priceless!
6
When will this GOP stranglehold end?
When will other sovereign nations stop laughing and fearing what the self proclaimed sexual predator will do next to unravel world peace?
Will the midterm election votes really be enough to balance us?
Or will we go from worse to the end of democracy as writen in our constitution?
5
I didn't know Trump was smart enough to realize that he is, in fact, a very bad liar. Perhaps he got some really useful tips from his distinguished friend when they met in Helsinki. Trump has been exercising the Russian playbook very well, except that he keeps getting caught lying, blatantly.
2
Why is this article under the "Opinion" section?
This is a fact, we have a long history of Trump not wanting anything of importance being put on record. Trump is a serial liar and exaggerator, it's to the point where he lies so much he can't keep track himself.
Why do you think his lawyers try to seal all of his law suits?
Criminals don't like to be on the record.
7
Thank you for this; it explains a lot.
Transcription is the life blood of reporting. Once it's said, it's out there. And you can't back away from the words that are, in a sense, inscribed in cyberstone.
Steno wil come to be the lynch pin in the removal of this would-be tyrant.
https://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
5
Yes, a lot of people write comments, and the Press is reporting. But what else? As long as Trump gets away with this behavior he will continue. He needs to be taken to the political wood shed or have a Dutch Uncle speak to him. Until somebody can change his behavior he thinks he's getting away with it and will continue. In France they would have mass demonstrations. Here, we sleep.
18
There is so much infrastructure in place to run an administration: developed over generations, trial and error, and ultimately what best serves the constitution and the law. And so much of it is voluntary and consensual on the part of the administration.
Every administration up until this one realizes how important it is to get everything the executive and his staff do exactly as it happens, and word-perfect. (Though at least one administration understood that a recording could be erased, and made up an excuse as to how it happened.)
Now we have someone who rips memos and briefings to shreds (literally) and refuses to allow what he says to be on the record.
No one else is in the room where it happened (to paraphrase Lin-Manuel Miranda), and yet he expects us to believe him.
15
Wow. It's good to know that we have such rigorous public servants who presume to lecture a president on the "rules" of conducting conversations with others, private or otherwise.
5
@Richard Luettgen That is exactly correct. There are rules for elected officials conducting conversations with others, just as there are customs and norms for how and under what circumstances those conversations take place. They are there for the benefit of the public, who can then learn what their officials say, and to whom. I'm glad that presidents I like, and those I don't, have been recorded by stenographers, so that the public record can be consulted if there are questions, from detractors and supporters alike.
18
@Richard Luettgen No, it's good to know that we have public servants who watch out for the best interests of the U.S. public, even if it means lecturing a naive and short-sighted president.
4
@Richard Luettgen Yes, it is very good to know that we have such public servants who are willing to speak up, explain past procedures and inform all of us about this. Each and every one of us in this country have the right to 'presume to lecture' any and all of our elected officials. Brava Ms. Dorey-Stein.
3
Thank you for such an interesting backstage glimpse of Presidential administrations. I wish we had a stenographic record of every word Trump has said since 2015. I think it would be highly illuminating--or perhaps a better word is "incriminating."
27
@Nanci We'll always have Twitter -- decades' worth in this case and it's funny how they seem to be dredged up at just the right time to contradict the current Tweets.
1
Perhaps President Trump’s suspect performance in Helsinki can be better understood if we (as Mueller’s team of investigators most certainly are) diligently follow the money.
With Trump & Sons, it has always been about the money.
After America’s very own Would-Be-Erdogan experienced his “financial difficulties”* of the past several decades, he could no longer borrow from US banks and had to turn to Russian sources of money—money which, as both of his sons have admitted, the Russian banksters, oligarchs and kleptocrats willingly supplied.
But we must be fair: Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy. Like any good US mega-capitalist, he merely uses Chapter 11, Title 11, of the US Bankruptcy Code to deprive others of their money, which, of course, is just another example of economic efficiency serving the common good—just ask any of The Donald’s former creditors.
41
Thanks for sharing this crucial behind the scenes perspective and how yet another piece of the Trump administration is broken.
Is this another thing that should be codified/required rather than being at the whim of a shady president? I would say a resounding "yes".
44
Liars don't like being recorded. Ever.
114
Recordings and stenographers provide a President with objectives truths which can counter inaccuracies of the Press. Unfortunately, this President is not interested in objective truths, but rather "truths" which tell the stories of his own making.
24
This brings to mind a recent article outlining Mr. Trump's pervasive habit of tearing up documents when he is finished with them. Despite being repeatedly reminded that this is a blatant violation of the Presidential Records Act, he continues to do it- Perhaps a learned behavior of a lifetime of doing business better left unrecorded, and not having ready access to a shredder.
Donald Trump doesn't want to be on the record, ever, because it would inhibit his ability to simply change or deny what was said before- He clearly has no problem lying- His bigger issue is getting called out on it ["FAKE NEWS!"].
The regular presence of a stenographer would stand squarely in opposition to his contrarian relationship with the truth.
How the White House remains staffed with anyone principled at all is an ongoing mystery.
12
Thank you, Ms. Dorey-Stein for your article - the wake up calls are coming loudly and frequently but yet many of us slumber.
When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, Romans fought among themselves and to quell this disorder and to "make Rome great again", Julius became "President for life". The Roman Senate allowed it to happen. We forget history, then we repeat it.
Orange Julius has crossed the Rubicon many times in the eyes of a great majority of the citizens. Yet buoyed by the "faithful" and the corrupt Republicans, they move the Rubicon just a little farther to give OJ more time to wreak havoc and spread lies. Is being the President for life far behind? Will we know when the military parade happens?
We all know what happened in the end. Hopefully a more peaceful version is not far.
23
HIstory is intangible. It cannot be repeated any more than getting out of bed today is a repeat of yesterday.
Same mistake, sure, repetition, no.
When you are plotting against the government you are pledged to serve, it is no wonder that you do not want to be recorded. That he actively seeks to squash his dealings is a sure sign that he knows what he will say will be damaging to him.
Tapes were the downfall of Nixon, but Trump as a committed life long huckster knows the danger that truth in the form of actual recordings are to be avoided at all cost.
4
Some telling points in this piece, the chief one being that there accountability demands an accurate record. Of course, if you seek to avoid accountability that goes out the window immediately. We know that about the man in the White House, do we not?
12
Thank you for sharing this insider's perspective - quite informative!
3
The first course of action of the next President should be to catalogue every unspoken rule that Trump has savaged and then make them explicit laws. Literally. Good governance should become the rallying cry of the Democratic Party.
7
I'd love to know if the stenographers have ever been interviewed by special counsel, were either translators American citizens and could they be interviewed by Mr. Mueller to reveal what was discussed in the one on one meeting?
2
Thank you, Ms. Dorey-Stein. I hope your example is emulated by all those still within the Trump administration with lights to shine on the truth.
3
No one cares to be recorded if they believe they may be committing a crime and that recording will be used against them.
Today's press release will announce a huge savings by eliminating the stenographic department.
Sputnik and RT have offered to do the same job for free and in his wisdom the president will take up this very generous offer.
1
Houston, we have a problem. We fear Trump's reentry into the real world could have some disastrous consequences. Time in space has altered his equilibrium, thought and emotional balance. We fear he could be carrying some foreign virus which could causes strange behavior in anyone near him. He may have to be contained in an isolation chamber to prevent the spread of disease for an indefinite period. Warning, warning.
2
If there was a stenographer/translator/notetaker working during the 1 on 1 meeting then that person's silence is the real reason only 2 people will control the narrative of what really happened. Silence means consent.
3
Trump's behavior is a classic example of "double-think," straight out of the George Orwell novel "1984": The ability to hold two contradicting opinions (i.e., "The recording backs me up" and "The recording is fake news"), to know that both cannot be true, yet to believe both (when it's convenient), to know and not to know that they contradict each other, and not to be bothered by the contradiction. In Trump's mind, the "truth" is malleable and the "facts" are whatever he SAYS they are. The White House has become the Ministry of Truth, and Big Brother is here, just 34 years late. The only difference is that Vladimir Putin is Big Brother, and Trump is his Comrade O'Brien.
8
I wonder if the Russians (secretly?) recorded Trump’s one-on-one meeting with Putin. Thank you for your article and your contribution to history.
15
I meant Putin’s translator of course.
Of course they did! And let’s hope the translator is a double agent. We could use one ASAP.
@MSJ Of course they did! They are sober realists, unlike our president.
2
This is a man who operates in the shadows, as far from public scrutiny as he can get away with, aside from his robot-like reading aloud of sanitized scripts concocted by his guardians in the White House. He long ago stopped sending emails, knowing, on his lawyer's advice, that they could be used against him. Not only does he keep the workings of his administration secret, he supports every tactic to shield the donor money trail. His streak of paranoia focuses on leaks to the press as the ultimate act of betrayal, or, in his mind, treason. One of our best hopes is for the media to continue exposing every aspect of this Trump-led assault on our country.
5
Trump would counter this opinion piece by saying that "both sides do it". Meaning both sides don't need stenographers, and somehow that makes it right. Putin doesn't need stenographers to record his official remarks to counter a "misquote" in the newspaper. He just has his journalists executed if they "misquote" him too often. Are we (U.S.) pointing in that direction?
8
Putin doesn't need to do it because he controls STATE media.
3
I suppose that Trump differs from his predecessors because they worried about the lies that might be told about them while Trump worries about the lies that might be told by him.
26
The president of the U.S. should NOT be able to decide whether what he says in the work place is recorded or not. It should a law cut in stone.
26
It is the work of ordinary citizens doing simple tasks, and going about them everyday, without rancor, that makes our country great. And it is decent, honest bureaucrats who are our Nation's bulwark against tyranny. Thank you Ms. Dorey-Stein for reminding us about how a president's words are kept safe...and truthful. But we no longer have a President in the Oval Office. We have a tyrant and a traitor.
4
I guess we are even more dependent on the forth estate to keep a factual record of Trump's mendacity. In that respect, God bless Jeff Mason of Reuters and Jonathan Lemire of the Associated Press.
34
This is a truly important article. It should be given wide distribution. I hope that many other newspapers pick it up and publish it.
12
Right on. Sadly. Right on. Thanks.
2
Outrageous! And what happened to the job of the archivists who were fired - the ones who worked to tape/piece together papers that Trump shredded but are intended to be saved for the archives.
4
Not surprising. Crime families are always suspicious of recording devices.
43
What a revealing column! It strikes me that having a stenographer present when the president speaks should be a requirement of the presidency, not an option.
It is clear that Trump doesn't want them because he wants to control the narrative, which in this case means Trump wants to lie. The sad fact is that his base is only too happy to be lied to.
A book has actually been written about that - it is called "Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us", by Amanda Carpenter.
As a member of what Karl Rove once called "the reality-based community", I am depending on the midterms and Mueller. I am so disgusted that we have to fight so many battles over again that had already been fought and one.
Pogo said it: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
20
Just like Scott Pruit, Trump does not want anything to be recorded. It makes scheming, denying and lying much easier.
5
Apparently, Trump's solution to weaving a tangled web of lies is to eliminate any record of what version of reality he employed in the past. The real problem is that millions of Americans are OK with that behavior.
9
With all due respect, I think that all we discover from this article is that the Trump White House did not do things the way they had been done previously, the author did not feel comfortable with the changes, and she didn't feel respected. Nothing we haven't heard many times before.
And what is the point of an illustrative photograph showing "A stenographer at work in Berlin, 2013"?
@ERP, right, that is like saying I am 'doing things differently' if I decide to never take baths ever again. There is a community-impacting, visceral and material difference between people who take baths and those who never do - ok, you can say it's just different..It is quite a bit more than 'just different."
31
@ERP
Respect the truth, that is what it's about. Can't be simpler than that! By posing the question about the illustration, you answered your own bias. As Dr. Bob Newhart would say, STOP IT!
4
@ERP, It is much more than that. When a president meets with a foreign head of state, he is representing our country. Whatever the topic, it can affect government policies, treaties, and a whole list of other issues. It is important to have a record of the discussion, so that the USG can act on it or refer to it when necessary.
In all USG embassies, a Foreign Service officer accompanies the US ambassador to meetings with host nation officials to take notes of the conversation. The State Department is made aware of any important issues and discussions, as are other USG departments that need to know.
It is pretty much the same routine globally. It makes the most sense in conducting diplomacy.
6
He's preventing the stenographers from doing their jobs. Is this not obstruction of justice??
14
I have no doubt that Trump is intent on crushing America the way Putin crushed Russia, one discouraged or dead journalist at a time. After a few years, the people forget that they really do have an independent voice, and the oligarchs take over.
So thanks for your brave letter and may many more who have served, or will serve, in the traitor's service, do the same thing. He hates the truth, and like any mobster, he hates being held to a public standard.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
13
Maybe Trump didn't trust you? I wouldn't trust someone who participated in this article.
1
What on earth do you mean, @Michael Green? The author didn't "participate" in this article; she wrote it. And she wrote it based on her experience at the White House. You're saying Trump was right not to trust her because it was clear that at some point in the future she was going to write this article?
Do you see why people get so sleepy trying to reason with blind supporters of this monstrous president? Logic collapses in a wormhole of alternative facts.q
3
@Michael Green, tape recorders don't lie. The truth to trump is kinda like garlic to a vampire. The man is an abomination.
5
@Michael Green: There is a reason Trump stopped publishing the visitors' log and it wasn't because it was "too expensive" (see his trips to "WH South"). It's because he doesn't want the public to know who has his ear. There is a reason Trump's "Foundation" had such poor record-keeping and governance and it's not so they could save more money to give to the unfortunate. It was so that it would be more difficult to determine the nature of their fraudulent activities. There is a reason Trump does not testify under oath and it's not because he's listening (for the first time) to his lawyers. It's because he does not want to be held accountable for the lies upon which he depends. There is a reason Trump did not want any notes taken during his meeting with Putin (and it need not be about "collusion"). He wants to be able to tell the world whatever successful version of events he likes without any POSSIBLE evidence to the contrary. There is a reason Trump's finances (a natural line of inquiry in almost any complex investigation) are a "red line" and it's not about overreach. It's because Trump does not want to have to resolve any... discrepancies about what he has said and what totally disloyal numbers might show.
The pattern could not be clearer.
8
"Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it."
-Mark Twain
Nobody can accuse Donald Trump of being an intellectual, or of reading much of anything at all. He lives in a special little universe where he is the only hero. But Mark Twain could see right through people like him and loved skewering them.
"Let us be thankful for the fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed."
-Mark Twain
Way too often, just by accident, Trump's actions reflect the words of a true stable genius. Neither of which Trump will ever be.
But Trump's words? Ask the stenos. All lies, all ready to be used against him, none worthy of going down in history.
3
If Trump were Nixon, the Oval Office tapes would have been fake news, and the break-in at Watergate the fault of McGovern.
6
@Sarah
And FOX News would have had his back.
3
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
For that to happen, never let a microphone get near the story.
Donald J. Trump has spent his entire adulthood forging an image and facts were never welcomed in that sphere. As president, Trump has already claimed to be the greatest president EVER, with the MOST achievements EVER and he has, always, claimed to be the GREATEST deal maker EVER while the facts demonstrate otherwise. Fifty years from now, there will be a 4 or 8 year gap in the legitimate history books when it comes to the presidency. The biggest losers will be the children who will be deprived of the factual history of their country.
4
If there is no recording of the truth then he can forcefully blast out any lie he wants. The Trump/Fox bubblehead crowd will always take his lies, over any opposing truth. But he cannot create doubt about the truth among the rest of the population if there is recorded evidence in support of the truth. The con only works if there is no recorded evidence to contradict it.
3
Call Trump the "washing machine" president, because he is always on the spin cycle. No one can tell what the truth is when he speaks.
5
If "the truth will set you free" then Trump is chained to lies and with a lock that cannot be broken.
9
Thank you, Beck Dorey-Stein for serving the truth.
8
Powerful people often define their power as the ability to create a distorted reality for public consumption.... Call it spin, if you will, on steroids.
stumpy is continuously distorting reality and feeding it to an ignorant or a vile base, for whom a commonly-held reality is seen as a threat and a stretch too far.
Orwell is foremost among those writers who saw this coming, and warned us...
16
This piece ends with a punch: Trump's enemy is the truth. But what else is Trump's enemy? The chilling answer is emerging as not one Republican does anything beyond tweeting tongue clucks after Trump's treasonous performance with Putin yesterday. Trump's enemy is "we the people."
And we are not now at risk of take over by a foreign government. The Republican party holds all of the power of every branch of the U.S. government and currently sits on its hand. The government takeover by a hostile power has already taken place.
When will the stenographer's office be abolished?
15
What a fascinating and revealing insight - thank you for this! Sometimes the devil is in the details -- and this devil does not like to be on record. Your account here is telling, especially for a president who is the only one who wants to do the only telling.
4
As per the WAPO, "Democracy dies in the dark.." When a POTUS takes every opportunity he can to hide, hide from, misrepresent, lie, exaggerate and twist the truth, we see the clear disadvantage and danger, to the people and institutions they SERVE. As THE PEOPLE, we must demand accountability with all things said and done IN SERVICE OF THE PEOPLE. We must demand a documented, recorded and complete record of all meetings, acts and choices made. I have no interest in risking national security by being provided access to all of this if it would put lives at risk or our country at a disadvantage, BUT, it should be available and be part of the historical record. This is an open and free Democracy and Republic with clear checks and balances, including a free press. Our Constitution was designed to serve the people and be defended by our leaders as their primary function. Instead, for the last 50+ years, primarily on the right, they chose to ignore this to instead, focus their positions to be used in service of themselves and their special interests. Reaping what they have sewn, DT exists because they primed the pump with lies for someone who fearlessly used their tactics on steroids. The Dems have played this game when it serves them too and need to know that we will demand accountability and equal representation as per the constitution and expel them. The ability to hide money/truth in service of power is the antithesis of the Constitution and the vision of the founders. VOTE
1
If there is a recording of our Great Leader (aka Donald Trump) then how can the Ministry of Truth (aka Fox News) tell us what the truth is when our Great Leader tells the ministry. Makes perfect sense to me.
1
I am very confused.
Is not stenography the process of taking shorthand from oral discourse? E.g., a court stenographer?
Why is Ms. Dorey-Stein a stenographer if she is transcribing tapes? Or just taping?
1
The job has changed; the job title has not.
3
We're in a war where the first victim is truth. Thank you for your service. Please keep fighting.
14
One way around Trump's degeneration of the stenos is to record/video his rallies. There is where you see the real monster. And because Trump is so enamored of himself, he cannot deny his actions as he watches them on Fox news.
2
Trump is probably only one of the politicians who dislike having their words recorded by sworn-in stenographers. Truth facing them is often unpleasant.
We are slowly drowning in an ocean of liars.
And, in this ocean, the buoys of truth are being ridiculed and deflated. How will this poisonous disruption end?
5
Sure looks & feels like he has a lot to hide. There really isn’t another plausible explanation.
2
How was working with Kellyanne Conway? I imagone she's not a fan either.
4
“...his administration had rebuffed every invitation from the Obama transition team during an inherently stressful time....” I wonder why. Sure, there’s a certain amount of stubborn ignorance here but I would have imagined that in the practical, mundane things, Mr. Trump would be much more like regular, sensible people than not. I remember reading about Jared Kushner’s obscenity-laden defiance when Reince Priebus tried to apply some practical order to the West Wing. I wonder if Mr. Kushner was responsible for the transition intransigence too. Perhaps he continues to play tug-of-war with practical voices of reason, for example the ones who must have implored Mr. Trump to read the briefing books and discuss the meeting before the Finland trip.
"In my five years with President Obama, off-the-record discussions with reporters happened after work hours — not for an hour in the middle of the work day, and certainly not before an interview.” I think there should be a limit to the president’s discretion in this, particularly regarding official duties. It's not surprising that the president who would break the public record is the one who lies so casually as to seem unaware of it - as, for example, with his surreal response that recordings of the interview with The Sun would vindicate him. But it calls out for intervention. I've been wondering whether his Russian translator could be subpoenaed, not for any investigation but just to restore the continuity of the broken public record.
12
@Jonathan: "...for example the ones who must have implored Mr. Trump to read the briefing books and discuss the meeting before the Finland trip."
Trump doesn't read (more than 140 characters at a time). Ever. He has lost the ability to focus for more than a very short amount of time on the written word or, really, anything that isn't directly about himself.
I worked for someone like that… top executive, CEO, Harvard Business School trained. One of his top pieces of instruction to me …. never write anything down or have it recorded. He said it was far more advantageous that way if and when a legal dispute would occur … needless to say, I don't have to describe the manner in which he directed the business at times. Or, for that matter, the lawyers the firm employed. He never signed anything, bye the way. He always found someone else who was distracted and harried to sign the document.
38
For almost all his adult life Trump has been adverse to having his thoughts recorded for verification. He is one of the few active adults in positions of power who never used emails in any form of interaction between individuals in his business enterprises and as we all know emails are a primary source of legal testimony. Now this information on his relation to the stenographers is a direct extension of his active avoidance of responsibility for his statements. This is at the very root of his ability to manipulate through his use of "fake news".
132
Remember reading that when either his accountants had a meeting with Trump, they went in pairs in order to have proof of what happened as Trump would routinely lie. We have all watched as Trump’s lies have escalated to absurd levels especially as Mr. Mueller gets closer to revealing his entire findings.
8
@richard But we'll always have Twitter - as we're coming to see.
1
There s an old saying that "Truth doesn't die" bit like the fallen tree in the forest, it may never be heard if not recorded.
I hope that someone besides Putin and Trump heard their one on one conversation.
66
@tom: I bet the Russians have a recording.
Maybe the next Democratic candidate for president needs to make a public entreaty, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the recordings of Donald Trump's private meetings with Russian government officials."
Of course, this approach won't work. The Russians have no incentive to burn their most important asset. For now.
48
I’m sure someone did hear their conversation, the Russians. Better than even odds it was recorded and now well protected behind Kremlin walls to be used as needed.
3
@tom
There should have been 2 interpreters. wonder if trump demands a loyalty oath from the one our side, too. (Or maybe putin supplied them both?)
1
This is an important article. It should be shared with those we know on the right because it does not "argue" positions, policies or beliefs, rather it sheds light on the President's methodology related to facts.
292
One of the best pieces I have read in the times. Short sweet and to the point. The Dems should get good candidates and adopt this style. Trump is a horror but what the Dems are doing will not work in any meaning full way , this will
4
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
--- Joseph Goebbels
Donald Trump and his cultish supporters have flushed America down a treasonous Trump Toilet of lies, spite, resentment and ill will toward all.
Our Black-Hole-In-Chief and his Grand Old Prevaricators must be flushed from office.
America's life depends on it.
November 6 2018
Vote.
379
please, opposition parties
give the public viable candidates who will not stop low to win.
for the past election cycles that is what this voter found.
bring new to the contest
bring faith in the voter to the contest
bring quality not mud to the contest
even if mud thrown, if you stoop to grab a handful of mud to throw back, you open self defense up to all sides and are slightly defenseless.
return truth and character to the voters please
2
I never realized that keeping a record of what was said at Presidential happenings was optional. Just as I was amazed that Trump was going to meet with Putin without any aides or observers in the room to accurately record the conversation. This is why it is now more necessary than ever to demand and get the translators notes. Since there were no official stenographers present it falls to those translators to be our truth keepers of last resort.
254
I have no doubts that the Russians somehow recorded every word that was said between Putin and Trump in their private meeting. Unfortunately, the American people won’t get access to the recording unless the Russians find it useful to expose Trump.
4
@Dale
I wonder: where was the suitcase containing all the codes necessary to destroy the world that follows a President?
Did Putin volunteer to keep an eye on it?
Where was it?
2
@Dale Doubt there were translator's notes.
Thank you for sharing this insight. I did not even consider the staff including stenograher's these days due to the multiple recording devices that seem ever present.
Your description adds more color to this tapestry of our "misunderstood" president.
174
Concise and pointed: Yes, Donald Trump's adversary is the truth, a claim that is truth itself made more cogent by someone who has seen him up close and often.
303
And now that the chain has been broken, there's no one to handle a proper transition when we get rid the White House of this bacterium. Who will pass along the protocols and traditions?
138
@C Wolfe Hopefully it will only be 4 years between Obama and the next new administration. Obama's transition team will still be able to help out if asked, though obviously the next administration will have a huge mess to clean up.
Also, as someone with a great deal of respect for bacteria and the helpful way that they contribute to our world, I was a little offended by the comparison you made.
64
@Lauren
So true, Lauren. I withdraw the comparison with any life form playing its ecological role, especially since my sentence was infected with a proofreading error.
Perhaps Trump is only a virtual being, a holographic projection of his supporters' fear and loathing.
6
CWolfe. There are five living former Presidents. Regardless of their politics I am sure they will step up to support the Office of the President , political affiliations aside. We need look no further than the recent picture of Bill Clinton visiting with George Bush the elder and his support dog. You can see the warmth and mutual respect in their eyes regardless of past political differences. This speaks to the class and dignity that needs to be restored and will.
39
When this Presidency is finally wound up the Presidential Library will be the size of a garden shed from Home Depot. They don't even record visitors to the White House. That's also a secret.
494
@Realworld It will be the greatest, most luxurious Presidential library since the beginning of the republic. It will be festooned with EC maps and photos of the yuge inauguration crowd (much bigger than Obama's).
Rally speeches will play on infinite loops.
"I could 'shoot people and I wouldn't lose voters'"
"'... blood coming out of her, wherever'"
"I hope they're showing how many people are in this room, but they won't"
I'm buying gold futures because of all the material that will be needed to plate the library in its tacky, tasteless glory.
3
A garden shed filled with comic books
8
@Realworld: this fake president deserves a fake library = a facade. Definitely would reflect its rule - as it would only be a front or an empty edifice. And, my tax dollars had better not be wasted to fund a Dump library - a contradiction of terms if there were ever one.
It complicates a fake presidency to have the truth on record, and makes it (nearly) impossible to run one that is corrupt and treasonous. That is, unless one also has the "good fortune" of having a thoroughly corrupt congress as a sidekick.
None are so blind as those who refuse to see.
646
Not only a corrupt congress but the corrupt and complicit FOX network as his dedicated propaganda organ.
4
Nice when the SC majority is also thoroughly corrupt.
1
A fabulous piece Ms Dorey-Stein. You make some excellent points. Thank you!
319
Someone needs to solicit and collect as many of these behind-the-scenes glimpses as possible. When the Trump presidency is over, we will be tempted to forget what a complete disaster it is. How so much of the success of our system depends on assumptions about dignity and competence across the political spectrum, and how this President and the party that enabled him ignored those principles.
We will not be able to correct this flaw in our form of representative democracy unless we learn the painful lessons of the Trump era. Thank you for this piece - we need more of them.
487
@Michael, I predict that once Trump is finally out of The White House, numerous books will be written by those around him, detailing layers of atrocities behind the White House walls beyond what we even know at this point. That is one of the few things I look forward to in relation to this horrific presidency.
8
@Michael Unfortunately, norms will need to be made into laws. Trump is showing us how easy it is for a tyrant and bully to take a chainsaw to accepted practices - needed practices.
8
We will need more than a record, we will need a Post-Trump Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to which all the staffers who collaborated with his assault on democracy can confess their wrongs.
4
I'm getting your book right now. Having been a secretary for 13 years before I finished college and began my professional career I know the man in the corner office is often not the man others experience. Sometimes better or sometimes worse, but rarely the same. Thank you for this article.
193
This is a small fact - one never mentioned - that demonstrates how entirely the fabulist in chief has rearranged the Office of the Presidency to conceal the truth.Not surprising for a man who has hidden his records form the public - and the government ( and creditors) for a lifetime.
Stenographers, where they are used are almost always in the background. In court proceedings- we assume one is present recording every piece of testimony correctly for an official record. Ms. Dorey-Stein's revelation that this Administration has exiled the stenos - the people who listen as a profession - is a much bigger revelation than it might seem. That they also create a written record - and he is demonstrably uncomfortable with written material - gives him has a second reasons for avoiding them.
The entire focus of this President is himself - his private interests. He lies as he breathes - and knows official records would expose him.
And so -White House stenographers strike fear in his heart.
1252
@cheryl This is a Presidency of defense.
1
@cheryl
Because his favorite lie is, “I never said that”.
6
@cheryl Agreed, including official records like tax returns.
2
It may be that Trump is too obsessed with the precedent set by Nixon and the rôle recording played in his downfall.
And even if we'll never get a replay of Rosemarie Woods re-contorting herself to explain the 18-minute gap, I expect the truth –no matter what fortuitous form it takes– will finally bring the man down. At least, as a foolishly optimistic American, I hope against hope for.
159
A thousand thanks, Ms. Dorey-Stein, for an insider's view of the White House. Yours was an invaluable daguerrotype into the workings of the presidency and the press. However, I'm not surprised by the account presented here.
Donald Trump makes up news as he goes along. If his audience loves it, it's authentic. If he is criticized, it's "fake news." The problem, though, began long before he reached the White House.
As millions of others have surmised, Donald Trump is reality-averse, a strange tic for a reality-television executive. He both wants his audience to see and hear what he presents, but any other viewpoint is expressly forbidden. It's anathema, or heresy, to transcribe the truth for, as we know under this president, the truth is malleable; it is what you want it to be.
Any present would want an exact, accurate report of his words. For merely security reasons, a word, sentence, clause, phrase or paragraph--not to mention an entire page or two--all represent serious security breaches if transcribed incorrectly. The leaders of other nations are watching, listening and reading every word that every president utters.
The president's words matter--they cannot be taken out of context. They cannot be misconstrued. They cannot be left open to interpretation.
A president who does not value accuracy and truth is a president who is not attuned to the awful responsibilities of his office. I think you're better off now, Ms. Dorey-Stein, for not being there now.
Many thanks.
441
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13 wrote "Donald Trump is reality-averse, a strange tic for a reality-television executive." I think it's exactly in keeping. "Reality TV" is an oxymoron. It's an entertainment form based on the idea of watching real people in real situations, but as phony as anything.
3
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13, you've described what we've known all along...Trump is a con man for whom the inconvenient truth intrudes on a daily basis. His supporters prefer to believe in the Wizard of Oz, Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. I'm heartened to know there is considerable pushback (even from Republicans, omg) to his disgraceful and possibly treasonous behavior over the past week and we DO need voice verification from stenographers when Trump lies. Too bad there wasn't one present during the one-on-one; we can only imagine what transpired.
5
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13 -- "The president's words matter--they cannot be taken out of context. They cannot be misconstrued. They cannot be left open to interpretation".
That's exactly why James Comey should have worn a wire into that meeting with the president. Comey would have had his personal stenographer in the room with him, telling the truth!
3
The history and the tone of clear and honest old-fashioned American values is, in this piece, so refreshing that it is beyond words. Disallowing stenographers from doing the job that America needs them to do smacks of obstruction of justice. Mr. Trump is counting on his followers to be prejudiced in his favor rather than risk knowing what the truth is. Thank you for doing your job. The future of the democracy hangs on your integrity, clearly, not Mr. Trump's!
912
Two words: Plausible deniability.
If there is no transcript, Trump can claim he said whatever works best for him in the moment when he challenges the reporter.
Suppose there was no recording of his interview about Theresa May and Brexit. Trump could've claimed he didn't criticize her, and--what? It would be his word against theirs, and you know who the base will believe.
(To be fair, the base believes whatever Trump says, even when he flip-flops right in front of them. They have an amazing ability to latch onto his latest statement and ignore everything he said up to that point. It's a lot like his ability to forget whatever he said five minutes ago if he likes what he said just now even more.)
575
@Bystander Trump's base is amazing. They are a different kind of human being. A human being who lives in a world that doesn't actually exist. A human being who has turned his or her life over to someone else. That is very amazing to me. Not very American in the cultural sense. Americans are supposed to be clear-thinking and independent. Just the opposite of Trump supporters.
239
@wolf201 Well put. I would call his supporters an audience, not a political base. Appropriate to our times, they are the product of an insulated, "info-tainment" culture.
6
Tony, and like all audiences they will get bored and more on to the latest and greatest act. Everybody, take a moment and remember all the leader/politicians who held the spotlight and have now faded. Remember Jimmy Swaggart? Haven't seen him on the national stage in quite a while.
Thank you for this documentation of the often-overlooked, quotidian details of how our government is supposed to work. It's in the day to day details -- things like record-keeping and adherence to practice and protocol -- that keep a complex enterprise like government functioning in service of the people. When the people stop caring, or are incapable of understanding, the importance of the details, the door is open to the despotic cult of personality that we now experience.
Your story is evidence that long before the open treason we saw yesterday in Helsinki, this administration has worked to un-do the American public's ability to keep track of that which we own.
785
I guess the recordings lied as well. We all know that the only truth is whatever Trump says it is at the time. No doubt he will be holding a rally soon, or he’ll talk to Fox and Friends and he’ll let us know the truth of everything that has been happen.
268
@Maxie
"We all know that the only truth is whatever Trump says it is at the time."
Exactly! We've always been at war with Eastasia . . .
5
@Maxie
And the law is whatever the Roberts court says it is at the time. Not so very different.
2
There is no surprise here. The guy in the White House wants to control all of his own press. Precise detail, some semblance of truth, of an accurate record--not important.
I have little doubt that he understands the role of stenographer: it is categorized with a free press. He wants what he wants, when he wants it. Accurate historical records are of little concern to him. Many of his supporters are content to let him go his merry way--as long as they get what they want. Shameful is an understatement; it does not cover the disturbing character of this man.
124
I'm a stenographer in Canada, and I've been one for five years. Let me start by saying just how much I admire you for the work you do. That said, I hate to say it, but it is hardly surprising to see the layman president (as opposed to the previous president, who had a law degree and had likely seen more than a few stenographers in his civilian life) to have a layman's view of stenos: "Why don't we just record it?" and "Don't we have speech to text now for this?" are things I get asked on a regular basis in my day-to-day life by people who have no idea what it is we actually do, and I'm not at all surprised that Trump doesn't care to make it easy for you to do your job. Why would he? We all know he doesn't believe truth or accuracy matter.
424
@Joanne Of course he know truth and accuracy matter. That's why he tries to keep them out of range.
@Joanne As a Social Worker, we were trained: if it's not documented, it didn't happen. Has anyone ever wondered what his Library.....will be? Pretty bare.
1
Why don't we just record it?
Thank you, Ms. Dorey-Stein! I was a court reporter for 25 years, and Ms. Beck Dorey-Stein's Opinion piece is the best writing about the broken White House and this presidency that I've read yet.
In Sean Kelly and Rosemary Rogers' charming book, "May the Saints Preserve Us," there is a patron saint for stenographers, Cassian of Tangier, who in 298 AD protested the death sentence given by a judge for being cruel and unjust, for which Cassian was executed along with the defendant, Marcellus, who was later made a saint.
The stakes are high for our country, and preserving the record of what happens is essential.
Thank you, New York Times, for publishing Ms. Dorey-Stein's Opinion, and let's read more from her!
505
Of course he doesn't like to be recorded. It makes it easier for people to catch the never ending lies.
452
It is easy enough to tell when Trump is lying. His lips are moving.
2
Contrast Trump’s aversion to having anything documented with FBI Director James Comey’s immediate annotation of his meetings with him in the form of personal memoranda. Trump never wanting a record of his own actions versus Comey knowing the truth was on his side tells you all you need to know about the relative veracity and integrity of the two men.
507
Yes Comey knows how to create a self serving record. Not the same as transcription.
2
@Steve Griffith
Comey should have worn a wire. He was a fool not to.
1
@Steve Griffith
But of course Comey was completely truthful. The FBI never lies Everyone knows that.
Thank you for writing....another reason to remain clenched until this experiment is over.
3
He's protecting himself but in doing so he's hurting us. The reason you exist is to protect us when others take sentences or fragments of sentences out of context. You are the videotape when the videotape can't pick up the audio.
This president is truly a failure at business, where you do want to have record in case of problems or misunderstandings and the subsequent lawsuits, and as a president. I'm sad that this man is so disrespectful to people like you and to the rest of the country. He is not doing us any favors.
138
When I was in a management position (chairman of a 15 member philosophy department) the watch word was: Always keep a paper trail. I wanted a record establishing that I was fulfilling my duties competently, responsibly, ethically and fairly.
If an executive avoids leaving a record of his/her decisions and actions, I take that as prima facie evidence that she/he is incompetent, irresponsible, unethical and/or unfair.
707
@Andrew G. Bjelland, Sr.
Are you serious? Those hidden microphones and cameras also do the trick ! And, if no one else knows about them, they cannot be subpoenaed.
@Andrew G. Bjelland, Sr.
Isn't this an example of the Peter Principle?
Nothing Trump does is normal compared to all other past Presidents. It is exhausting to daily read and see the man just lie to us. Why wouldn't he want his words recorded? When we see him in front of the cameras, his speech is often erratic and he says very little,uses lots of adjectives to describe himself and the situation. When he sounds ignorant in front of the cameras, one can only wonder how ignorant he is off camera.He even tries to deny statements he's made that have been recorded as fake news. He's the only President who has had such a hateful view of media and journalists, because they report his ignorance of most matters and provide us with a record of his lies..
361
@SLD He has a "hateful view" of the TRUTH.
6
The maddening thing is that nothing ever seems to come of it, at least not so far. Trump disparages Theresa May, then denies it and says that the record will vindicate him. But of course it wouldn't because he is lying. Is there a moment of reckoning? No. He just goes along, lying all the way. This is why we need to distance ourselves from these people, to politely but firmly let them know we'll have nothing to do with them, as the restaurant owner did to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. To simply let them lie and lie without consequence is unacceptable.
401
This is the crux. We should all be intolerant of constant lying. Every Senator should be saying - no more lies.
3
I was a media relations person for almost 40 years. I never allowed a person for whom I worked do a one-on-one interview with a reporter--whether it was for the New York Times or the weekly pennysaver--without being in the room, where I took copious notes. That way, when an article was published, I could compare my notes with the direct quotes a reporter used. I remember one interview, at a major university, when a TV reporter was interviewing (with video) a nuclear engineering professor, and he announced, "I just want you to know, I am against nuclear power." Then he flipped on his camera and microphone. I stopped the interview. I developed an excellent reputation with reporters of being responsive to their needs and deadlines.
Why Trump wouldn't want his sessions recorded for his own protection is simply beyond my comprehension. He would be able to prove his "fake news" charges. But apparently he doesn't need proof; his supporters believe every utterance that comes out of his mouth, as can be seen from their Twitter comments since yesterday's event in Helsinki. Every last one of them are deflecting what Trump said and are pointing fingers, once again, at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
As someone who lived through the Nixon debacle, I must say Trump makes Nixon and his lying look like a rank amateur.
354
Your job was one of the most important in the White House. Recording what is said in this and every White House is important to history and for the clarification of all policies and decisions made that affect all Americans as well as people across the world.
It is not surprising that Trump's White House does not respect the people who record what he says. A record of his every utterance is direct proof of his lies. It has also been reported that it is his habit to destroy any piece of paper that he reads or writes on.
Our congress needs to ensure that all written, electronic and verbal communications are accurately recorded and archived in all administrations.
Only by doing this can we assure an accurate and factual accounting of history and this White House.
238
@Jane K
Yes. I am not sad to see this woman go. She clearly considered the press her adversary and thought she had to defend against misquotes by reporters. What about lies by those being interviewed? Her attitude is quite unprofessional.