In March 2017, the Democratic party attempted to pass a bill, the MAR-A-LAGO Act, which stands for “Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness”. The bill’s acronym spelt out just happen to be the name of Donald Trump’s Florida estate or the “Winter White House”. Those clever Democrats.
During the Obama administration, visitors of the White House would have to sign in. This allowed the public to see who was going in and out of meetings with the president. This ended when Trump took his place in office. Democratic Congress members, and a lot of tax payers, were furious with the “closed doors” type of behavior. And so, the birth of the MAR-A-LAGO Act came to be.
The bill would have mandated the release of visitor logs; not only at the White House, but other locations where the president may hold private meetings. More specifically, at Mar-a-Lago or the “Southern White House” as Trump has called it. The people who have access to the Florida resort have to pay a $200,000 membership fee.
New Mexico Senator, Tom Udall, had this to say about Donald Trump’s decision to remove the log book. “By refusing to release the White House visitor logs, President Trump is only validating the rampant concerns about who may be pulling the levers in his administration. The president should end his administration’s disturbing pattern of stonewalling information and immediately reinstate the previous administration’s policy of publishing White House visitor logs. And given President Trump’s unprecedented decision to conduct official business at his private business properties, the Trump administration has an obligation to make public the visitor lists at places like Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower.”
Donald Trump had no response to the bill. In the end, the MAR-A-LAGO act didn’t really get to see the light of day. So, there continues to be no visitor sign in at any locations where business meetings are held by the president. Make America Great Again, huh.
Featured Image: NationalReview
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