Trump library says no Twitter DMs can be found, despite evidence he sent them
Records show that Trump's first administration opted not to save DMs in its library archives, raising questions about compliance with the Presidential Records Act.
By Nate Jones, Wash. Post, June 3, 2026
The newly operational Trump Presidential Library, the entity responsible for preserving records from the White House, says that it cannot find a single Twitter direct message sent by a president who tweeted more than 25,000 times during his first administration.
This no-records response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Post comes as the Trump administration argues it does not need to follow the Presidential Records Act, a law designed to ensure the public has access to records of the president after he leaves office.
On Jan. 20, The Washington Post filed a FOIA request with the Trump library for all direct messages sent from the president’s Twitter accounts @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS during his first term.
Despite evidence that the president did use the messaging feature, the library, a division of the National Archives and Records Administration, told The Post that “[w]e have been unable to locate any records related to” any direct message, or DM, sent by Trump during his first term as president.
Read more here.
[ALB comments: No administrative appeal filed? If not, why not? Also, why does NARA address the requester by his first name instead of “Mr. Schaffer”?]
