Trump Falsely Says George HW Bush Took Documents to Chinese Bowling Alley and Restaurant

() — First, former President Donald Trump attempted to spread a false claim about his predecessor, Barack Obama’s document handling practices. Now, he returns to the fray using the same falsehood against other ex-presidents.

Last August, after the FBI recovered classified documents and many other presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Trump declared that Obama had brought millions of presidential documents to Chicago. Quickly, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) debunked such claimexplaining that it was the agency itself — and not Obama — that took the documents to a facility under his administration in the Chicago area.

Then, at a rally in Arizona this Sunday, Trump not only repeated the false claim about Obama, he also added a nearly identical false claim about other former presidents like George HW Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Dramatically, Trump said: “George HW Bush took millions of documents to an old bowling alley and an old Chinese restaurant; where they combined them. So they’re in a bowling alley/Chinese restaurant.” And he added: “A Chinese restaurant and a bowling alley. No security and the front door is broken.”

Trump also claimed that “Bill Clinton took millions of documents from the White House to a former car dealer in Arkansas.” Also that “George W. Bush stored 68 million pages in a warehouse in Texas.”

Facts first: all of these Trump claims are false. George HW Bush didn’t take millions of documents to a former bowling alley and Chinese restaurant. Rather, the National Archives and Records Administration moved Bush’s presidential papers to a facility prior to the opening of the Bush Presidential Library in the same city. Trump’s claims about Clinton and George W. Bush are inaccurate in precisely the same way: NARA, not the former presidents, temporarily stored the documents in agency-run facilities at the former car dealership in Arkansas and the warehouse in Texas. And Trump was also wrong when he said that there was “no security” in the place where the Bush parents’ documents were kept: the facilities were highly protected, according to a press report of the time.

So there is no equivalence between Trump’s handling of presidential documents and that of his predecessors. For the others, the presidential documents were held by NARA and stored securely and professionally. While regarding Trump, the presidential documents found in a random deposit in Mar-a-Lago were in the possession of the former president, despite the numerous attempts by NARA and the Department of Justice to recover them.

Trump’s claims about George HW Bush documents

At Sunday’s rally, Trump urged authorities to “investigate what happened” with George HW Bush and the presidential documents. But there’s nothing of substance to dig into: The National Archives and Records Administration has been clear since the 1990s about where it temporarily stored Bush’s documents before it opened his permanent library. In fact, the NARA official in charge of transitioning the Bush papers into the permanent library publicly joked about the temporary facility back then.

“I’ve been telling reporters this for the last four years: It’s not just a bowling alley. It’s a bowling alley and a Chinese restaurant,” David Alsobrook said.

And while this temporary location in College Station, Texas made for an amusing story, there was nothing unusual about the agency using it for such a purpose. NARA needs a lot of space to store presidential documents before permanent president libraries are built. That’s why it looks for and modifies large nearby installations that with often engaged in other activities before.

Anyone who has heard Trump’s comments could imagine documents from the first Bush administration carelessly strewn across bowling alleys. But that is not what happened. The newspaper Washington Post reported in 1993: “There are no more bowling alleys. No gutters, no bowling alleys, no beer. Thanks to a rush refurbishment job after last November’s election, there are a few simple offices left, a huge fire-resistant vault, and row after row of steel shelves full of cardboard boxes and wooden crates”.

There was also ample security. The Associated Press reported in 1994: “Uniformed guards patrol the facility. There are closed circuit television monitors and sophisticated electronic detectors along the walls and doors. Some printed materials are classified and will remain so for years; it is open only to those with top secret clearances.

Robert Holzweiss, who began working at the George HW Bush library in 1996 and is now its deputy director, told the magazine People for an article in early 2022: “When I started, the temporary Bush museum facility was in College Station, Texas, in an old bowling alley. Without the bowling alleys it was perfect, it was like a warehouse. They just built a secure space inside for house the classified material”.

Bush he died in 2018. His son Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who ran against Trump in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination, answered on Twitter to Trump’s claim about the late president: “I’m so confused. My dad enjoyed good Chinese food and enjoyed the challenge of a 7-10 play. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Trump’s false claims about Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

Trump’s claims at the rally about former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are false for exactly the same reason that the claims against Obama and Bush Sr. are not.

That former Balch Motor Company building in Little Rock, Arkansas, where millions of Clinton presidential documents were stored? Again, it was the National Archives and Records Administration that brought the documents to this facility, under agency managementprior to the opening of the Clinton Library in the same city.

That warehouse in Lewisville, Texas, where millions of Bush son’s presidential documents were stored? It was a setup managed by NARAused to store documents while preparing the permanent library of Bush in the vicinity of Dallas.