Want to know who's been visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago? Too bad.


The Trump administration, it seems, does not want you to know who has been palling around with President Trump or his family at Mar-a-Lago. That's one way to interpret a recent move by the Justice Department, which on Friday refused to release the full list of names of people who visited the president at his Florida resort between January 20 and March 8 of this year, despite being ordered to do so by a federal court, The New York Times reports.
The order was issued back in July. Since his inauguration, the president has spent 25 days at his "winter White House" in Palm Beach, Florida, where membership costs $200,000 and frequent guests include financiers and real estate developers. The Department of Justice did release a few names, 22 to be exact, all of which were foreign dignitaries and staffers related to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited the resort in February. The rest will remain a mystery, at least for now.
"The government believes that presidential schedule information is not subject to FOIA [Freedom of Information Act]," Chad A. Readler, acting assistant attorney general, wrote. Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said this was "spitting in the eye of transparency. We will be fighting this in court."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jessica Hullinger is a writer and former deputy editor of The Week Digital. Originally from the American Midwest, she completed a degree in journalism at Indiana University Bloomington before relocating to New York City, where she pursued a career in media. After joining The Week as an intern in 2010, she served as the title’s audience development manager, senior editor and deputy editor, as well as a regular guest on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. Her writing has featured in other publications including Popular Science, Fast Company, Fortune, and Self magazine, and she loves covering science and climate-related issues.
-
Where will international students go if not the US?
Talking Points China, Canada, UK ready to educate the world
-
5 electrifying books to read this June to spark your imagination
The Week Recommends A love story set in space, a pair of ambitious debuts and more
-
How the New World screwworm is making a deadly comeback
The explainer The parasite is spreading quickly
-
White House tackles fake citations in MAHA report
speed read A federal government public health report spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was rife with false citations
-
Judge blocks push to bar Harvard foreign students
speed read Judge Allison Burroughs sided with Harvard against the Trump administration's attempt to block the admittance of international students
-
Trump's trade war whipsawed by court rulings
Speed Read A series of court rulings over Trump's tariffs renders the future of US trade policy uncertain
-
Elon Musk departs Trump administration
speed read The former DOGE head says he is ending his government work to spend more time on his companies
-
Trump taps ex-personal lawyer for appeals court
speed read The president has nominated Emil Bove, his former criminal defense lawyer, to be a federal judge
-
US trade court nullifies Trump's biggest tariffs
speed read The US Court of International Trade says Trump exceeded his authority in imposing global tariffs
-
Trump pauses all new foreign student visas
speed read The State Department has stopped scheduling interviews with those seeking student visas in preparation for scrutiny of applicants' social media
-
Trump pardons Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery
speed read Former sheriff Scott Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal bribery and fraud charges