Former president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
Biden’s diagnosis was confirmed in a statement from his personal office.
“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the statement added.
Biden and his family are “reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” the statement said.
Earlier this week, a small nodule was found in the 82-year-old president’s prostate.
In February 2023, while in office, Biden had cancerous lesions removed from his chest. Before taking office, he had several non-melanoma skin cancers removed.
A year later, President Biden, then the presumptive Democratic nominee, was deemed “fit to serve” during a physical exam. Biden later exited the race to make way for eventual Democratic nominee Kamala Harris who lost to Donald Trump in the November 2024 election.
Biden left office on Jan. 20, 2025 as the oldest sitting president. He will turn 83 on Nov. 20, 2025.
A popular restaurant chain abruptly closed 15 locations this week, according to reports.
A spokesperson for Bahama Breeze told USA Today shutdowns occurred in multiple states, including Florida, Illinois, Tennessee and Nevada. CNN reported the closures represent more than a third of Bahama Breeze’s current locations.
In a statement to USA Today, spokesperson Kiara Buckner said closures of the Darden-owned chain come after evaluations of restaurant performance across the country.
“Closing a restaurant is a difficult choice because it impacts our team members and guests. However, we believe this is the right decision because it will allow Bahama Breeze to focus on its highest performing restaurants and strengthen the brand’s overall performance,” Buckner said.
Bahama Breeze’s only Alabama location, located in Birmingham, had closed previously. The Caribbean-themed chain has just 29 restaurants remaining nationwide.
For those unfamiliar with the sequel series, all-star survivalists from the Naked and Afraid franchise compete head-to-head through a grueling, multiphase challenge and have their primitive skills tested for the chance to win $100,000.
What to expect from Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing season 3
On this season of Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing brings back 14 of the toughest and most experienced all-stars from the parent series, Naked and Afraid, to vie for the title as this season’s Last One Standing in the unpredictable Australian Outback.
Some of the fan-favorites from the franchise returning to the screen for the upcoming season include Matt Wright, Max Djenohan, Ky Furneaux, Laura Zerra, Patrick French, Suzänne Zeta and more.
Season three is starting off with a bang as one of the legends part of season three’s cast suffers a third-degree burn and faces immediate elimination in the premiere episode. Meanwhile, survivalists are warned when deadly taipan snakes surround their shelter.
Where can I watch Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing season 3?
Those interested in streaming the new season of Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing but have already bid farewell to traditional cable are in luck because the hit Discovery series is available for streaming on Philo, DirecTV Stream and Sling.
Both Philo and DirecTV Stream have free trials available for new subscribers while those who go the Sling route and sign up for a paid subscription receive half off their first month and one month free of AMC+.
What is Philo?
Philo is considered one of the cheapest ways to ditch basic cable. Known as an entertainment-focused streaming service, Philo offers its subscribers access to over 70 top-rated TV channels such as TLC, MTV, BET, AMC, CMT, Investigation Discovery and more.
New users can enjoy Philo’s 7-day free trial and continue to stream top channels, hit TV shows and movies on-demand for just $28 a month once the free trial expires.
Those looking to customize their flow of content even further on Philo can consider including add-ons such as MGM+, STARZ, and AMC+ in their subscription.
What is DirecTV Stream?
DirecTV Stream is a top streaming service perfect for those looking to access a plethora of live TV channels and enjoy helpful features. The base package starts at just $86.99 a month after its 5-day free trial and includes popular TV channels such as HGTV, ESPN, Bravo, CMT, CNBC, BET, CNN and more.
DirecTV Stream has also recently introduced a lineup of genre packs, which allows subscribers to choose their favorite viewing options based on what genre they watch the most. With genre packs, users can get the channels and content they want without filler channel overload. Packs start at just $34.99 a month.
Those interested in comparing all DirecTV Stream’s channel packages and the new genre packs can check them out here.
What is Sling?
Sling is another streaming service to consider if you want to stream live TV channels like Discovery. Though no free trial is available to new subscribers, those who commit to a paid plan get half off the first month and one month free of AMC+.
Both the Sling Orange plan and the Sling Blue plan are normally $45.99 a month, but with the current promotion, Sling users will pay just $23 a month for the first month.
For those who wish to access channels from both the Sling Blue and Sling Orange plans can do so by signing up for the Orange + Blue plan, which combines the best of both plans for just $60.99 a month ($30.50 for the first month).
On Sunday at 1:35 p.m. an updated severe thunderstorm warning was released by the National Weather Service in effect until 2:15 p.m. for Madison County.
The storms are anticipated to bring penny-sized hail (0.75 inches) and wind gusts of up to 60 mph.
“At 1:35 p.m., a severe thunderstorm was located near Alabama A And M University, or near Moores Mill, moving east at 35 mph,” states the weather service. “Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.”
Locations impacted by the warning include Maysville, Huntsville, Alabama A And M University, Moores Mill, Marshall Space Flight Center, University Of Alabama In Huntsville, Ryland, Brownsboro, Redstone Arsenal and Meridianville.
The weather service states, “For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. Continuous cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm. Move indoors immediately. Lightning is one of nature’s leading killers. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.”
When lightning looms: Expert safety tips for thunderstorms
Each year, lightning strikes the United States approximately 25 million times, with the majority of these electrifying events occurring during the summer months. Unfortunately, lightning is responsible for claiming the lives of approximately 20 people annually, as reported by the weather service. The threat of lightning becomes more pronounced as thunderstorms draw nearer, peaking when the storm is directly overhead and gradually waning as it moves away.
To guarantee your safety in the midst of a thunderstorm, take into account the following recommendations:
Lightning safety plan:
When venturing outdoors, it’s vital to establish a clear plan for seeking shelter in case of lightning.
Monitor the sky for threatening signs and listen for the sound of thunder. If thunder is audible, it’s an indication that lightning is nearby.
Seek a safe place to shelter, preferably indoors.
Indoors safety measures:
Once you’ve found shelter indoors, abstain from using corded phones, electrical appliances, or plumbing fixtures, and refrain from approaching windows and doors.
These precautions help reduce the risk of electrical surges, as lightning can follow conductive pathways.
Wait for the all-clear:
After the last lightning strike or thunderclap, wait at least 30 minutes before resuming outdoor activities.
It’s important to remember that lightning can strike even when a storm seems to have passed, so exercise caution.
When indoor shelter isn’t available:
If you find yourself outdoors with no access to indoor shelter during a thunderstorm, take these steps to maximize your safety:
Avoid open fields, hilltops, or ridge crests, as they expose you to greater lightning risk.
Steer clear of tall, isolated trees and other prominent objects. In wooded areas, stay close to lower stands of trees.
If you’re in a group, ensure that individuals are spaced out to prevent lightning current from transferring between people.
Camping in an open setting during a thunderstorm is strongly discouraged. If you have no alternative, set up camp in a valley, ravine, or other low-lying areas. It’s crucial to note that a tent provides no protection against lightning.
Do not approach water bodies, wet objects, or metal items. Although water and metal do not attract lightning, they conduct electricity effectively and can pose significant risks.
In summary, when facing the threat of lightning, vigilance and preparedness are your best allies. By following these guidelines, you can significantly reduce the chances of lightning-related accidents and prioritize your safety.
Navigating heavy rain: Essential safety measures for wet roads
When heavy rain sets in, the risk of flooding and hazardous driving conditions rises. Whether it’s prolonged rainfall or rapid runoff, being prepared is essential. Here are some valuable safety tips from the weather service to ensure you stay safe in heavy rain:
Beware of swollen waterways:
Avoid parking or walking in close proximity to culverts or drainage ditches, as the swiftly moving water during heavy rain can potentially carry you away.
Maintain safe driving distances:
Adhere to the two-second rule for maintaining a safe following distance behind the vehicle in front of you. In heavy rain, allow an additional two seconds of distance to compensate for reduced traction and braking effectiveness.
Reduce speed and drive cautiously:
On wet roads, reducing your speed is crucial. Ease off the gas pedal gradually and avoid abrupt braking to prevent skidding.
Choose your lane wisely:
Stick to the middle lanes to minimize the risk of hydroplaning. Outer lanes are more prone to accumulating water.
Visibility matters:
Turn on your headlights and be careful of other vehicles to the rear and in blind spot areas as they are especially difficult to see through rain-spattered windows.
Watch out for slippery roads:
Be extra careful during the first half hour after rain begins. Grime and oil on the road surface mix with water to make the road slippery.
Keep a safe distance from large vehicles:
Large trucks and buses can reduce your visibility with tire spray. Avoid tailgating and pass them swiftly and safely.
Mind your windshield wipers:
Overloaded wiper blades can hinder visibility. If rain severely limits your sight, pull over and wait for conditions to improve. Seek refuge at rest areas or protected spots.
When stopping by the roadside is your only option, position your vehicle as far off the road as possible, ideally beyond guardrails. Keep your headlights on and activate emergency flashers to alert other drivers of your position.
By following these safety measures, you can significantly reduce risks and ensure your well-being when heavy rain pours down. Stay informed about weather conditions and heed advice from local authorities to make your journey safe and sound.
Advance Local Weather Alerts is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to compile the latest data from the National Weather Service.
A report from the National Weather Service was issued on Sunday at 12:54 p.m. for strong thunderstorms until 1:45 p.m. for Limestone, Madison and Morgan counties.
The storms are expected to bring wind gusts of up to 40 mph and penny-sized hail (0.75 inches).
“At 12:54 p.m., Doppler radar tracked a strong thunderstorm near Huntsville International Airport, or 7 miles southwest of Madison, moving east at 30 mph,” states the weather service. “Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor hail damage to vegetation is possible.”
Locations impacted by the alert include Madison, Belle Mina, Huntsville, Triana, Marshall Space Flight Center, University Of Alabama In Huntsville, Mooresville, Redstone Arsenal, Laceys Spring and Farley.
The weather service states, “If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm. Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe shelter inside a building or vehicle.”
When lightning looms: Expert safety tips for thunderstorms
Lightning strikes the United States approximately 25 million times each year, with the bulk of these electrical discharges occurring during the summer months. Tragically, lightning claims the lives of about 20 individuals annually, as reported by the weather service. The risk of lightning-related incidents escalates as thunderstorms draw near, reaching its peak when the storm directly looms overhead. However, it gradually recedes as the tempest moves away.
To ensure your safety during a thunderstorm, consider the following recommendations:
Lightning safety plan:
When venturing outdoors, it’s vital to establish a clear plan for seeking shelter in case of lightning.
Stay vigilant by monitoring the sky for ominous signs and listening for the telltale sound of thunder. If thunder is audible, it’s a clear indication of nearby lightning.
Seek a safe place to shelter, preferably indoors.
Indoors safety measures:
Once you’re indoors, avoid using corded phones, electrical devices, plumbing fixtures, and stay away from windows and doors.
Lightning can follow conductive pathways, and these precautions reduce the risk of electrical surges.
Wait for the all-clear:
After the last lightning strike or thunderclap, wait at least 30 minutes before resuming outdoor activities.
It’s important to remember that lightning can strike even when a storm seems to have passed, so exercise caution.
When indoor shelter isn’t available:
If you find yourself outdoors with no access to indoor shelter during a thunderstorm, take these steps to maximize your safety:
Avoid open fields, hilltops, or ridge crests, as they expose you to greater lightning risk.
Steer clear of tall, isolated trees and other prominent objects. In wooded areas, stay close to lower stands of trees.
If you’re with a group, ensure individuals are spread out to prevent lightning current from transferring between people.
Camping in an open setting during a thunderstorm is strongly discouraged. If you have no alternative, set up camp in a valley, ravine, or other low-lying areas. It’s crucial to note that a tent provides no protection against lightning.
Do not approach water bodies, wet objects, or metal items. Although water and metal do not attract lightning, they conduct electricity effectively and can pose significant risks.
In summary, when facing the threat of lightning, preparedness and vigilance are your best allies. By following these guidelines, you can significantly reduce the likelihood of lightning-related incidents and prioritize your safety.
Driving through downpours: Safety guidelines for wet roads
When heavy rain pours, the risk of flooding and treacherous roads rises. Here’s your guide from the weather service to staying safe during downpours:
Beware of swollen waterways:
During heavy rain, avoid parking or walking near culverts or drainage ditches, where swift-moving water can pose a serious risk.
Maintain safe driving distances:
The two-second rule for following distance is your ally in heavy rain. Extend it to four seconds to ensure safe spacing in adverse conditions.
Slow down and stay cautious:
If it is raining and the roads are wet, slow down. Take your foot off the accelerator and let your speed drop gradually. Never use the brakes suddenly because this may cause the car to skid.
Choose your lane wisely:
Stay toward the middle lanes – water tends to pool in the outside lanes.
Visibility matters:
Enhance your visibility in heavy rain by activating your headlights. Be particularly vigilant for vehicles in blind spots, as rain-smeared windows can obscure them.
Watch out for slippery roads:
The first half-hour of rain is when roads are slickest due to a mix of rain, grime, and oil. Exercise heightened caution during this period.
Keep a safe distance from large vehicles:
Large trucks and buses can reduce your visibility with tire spray. Avoid tailgating and pass them swiftly and safely.
Mind your windshield wipers:
Overloaded wiper blades can hinder visibility. If rain severely impairs your vision, pull over and wait for conditions to improve. Seek refuge at rest areas or sheltered spots.
If the roadside is your only option, pull off as far as possible, preferably past the end of a guard rail, and wait until the storm passes. Keep your headlights on and turn on emergency flashers to alert other drivers of your position.
In the face of heavy rain, these precautions can make a significant difference in ensuring your safety on the road. Remember to stay informed about weather conditions and heed guidance from local authorities for a secure journey.
Advance Local Weather Alerts is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to compile the latest data from the National Weather Service.
Alabama softball has a chance to advance to the NCAA Tournament’s super regional round on Sunday. The Crimson Tide is set to face Virginia Tech in the Tuscaloosa regional, needing just one win to move on.
The Tide and Hokies faced off once already, on Saturday, when Alabama won 4-3 in the early game. VT then faced Belmont later in the day, winning 11-1 in six innings to keep its own season alive.
If Alabama wins the first game, the Crimson Tide advances, likely to the Norman super regional. However, if Virginia Tech wins, UA will get another crack at the Hokies later on Sunday.
The first game of Sunday’s action is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. CT at Rhoads Stadium. The matchup will be aired on ESPN+.
Follow along here for live updates once the game begins.
Pregame
— Catelyn Riley will pitch for Alabama. Emma Lemley will start in the circle for Virginia Tech.
The NASCAR Cup Series continues this afternoon, as racers compete in the NASCAR All-Star Race. The event will begin at 7 p.m. CT on FS1. Fans can watch this race for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
The NASCAR All-Star Race features a $1 million prize pool for the winner, so tonight’s event should be highly competitive.
Kyle Larson will be a key racer to watch tonight, as he currently sits atop the NASCAR Cup Series standings. He has 469 points this season with nine top 10 finishes, which leads the competition.
Larson secured his third victory of the season last week, so he will look to continue his success this evening.
William Byron will be another key racer to watch tonight, as he currently sits in second place. He has accrued 434 points this season, and he has seven top 10 finishes.
Byron ended last race in 24th place, so he will try to improve his performance this evening.
Fans can watch the NASCAR All-Star Race for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
FILE – A letter from acting archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall to former President Donald Trump’s legal team is photographed, Aug. 23, 2022. The letter details that the National Archives recovered 100 documents bearing classified markings, totaling more than 700 pages, from an initial batch of 15 boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago earlier in 2022. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected, from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity.
Now, the Trump administration is scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it finds disagreeable.
It has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view the government-slashing efforts of Elon Musk’s team and other key administration initiatives. Officials have used apps such as Signal that can auto-delete messages containing sensitive information rather than retaining them for recordkeeping. And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership and even ordered the rewriting of history on display at the Smithsonian Institution.
All of that follows President Donald Trump discouraging note-taking at meetings, ripping up records when he was done with them, refusing to release White House visitor logs and having staffers sign nondisclosure agreements during his first term — then being indicted for hauling to Florida boxes of sensitive documents that he was legally required to relinquish.
To historians and archivists, it points to the possibility that Trump’s presidency will leave less for the nation’s historical record than nearly any before it and that what is authorized for public release will be sanitized and edited to reinforce a carefully sculpted image the president wants projected, even if the facts don’t back that up.
How will experts and their fellow Americans understand what went on during Trump’s term when those charged with setting aside the artifacts documenting history refuse to do so?
How to piece together a history of truth and accuracy?
The administration says it’s the “most transparent in history,” citing the Republican president’s penchant for taking questions from reporters nearly every day.
But flooding the airwaves, media outlets and the internet with all things Trump isn’t the same as keeping records that document the inner workings of an administration, historians caution. That’s especially true given the president’s propensity for exaggerating, particularly when it comes to bolstering his own image and accomplishments.
“He thinks he controls history,” says Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian who served as founding director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. “He wants to control what Americans ultimately find out about the truth of his administration, and that’s dangerous. Because, if he believes that he can control that truth, he may believe that there is nothing that he can do that would have consequences.”
Watchdog groups are most immediately worried about what the administration is doing in real time with little oversight or accountability. They point to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and other top officials seeking to obscure sweeping efforts to remake government, the economy and large swaths of the nation’s civil and cultural fabric.
“With this administration’s history of tearing up records, storing them in unsecured facilities in Florida, its use of Signal,” said Scott Amey, general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, which has sued DOGE seeking greater access to records. “At that point, there are a lot of questions about how’s DOGE operating, and is it operating within the law?”
Trump has made concealing even basic facts part of his political persona.
He long refused to release his tax returns despite every other major White House candidate and president having done so since Jimmy Carter. Today, White House stenographers still record every word Trump utters, but many of their transcriptions are languishing in the White House press office without authorization for public release. That means no official record — for weeks, if at all — of what the president has said.
“You want to have a record because that’s how you ensure accountability,” said Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library in Mount Vernon, Virginia. “You can’t hold people accountable if you don’t actually know what happened.”
The law says Trump must maintain records
Presidents are legally obligated to keep up the historical record. After the Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign in 1974, he tried to take documents home to California. Congress approved a law requiring document preservation that applied only to Nixon.
Four years later, the Presidential Records Act extended similar rules to all commanders in chief. It mandates the preservation, forever, of White House and vice presidential documents and communications. It deems them the property of the U.S. government and directs the National Archives and Records Administration to administer them after a president’s term.
A separate measure, the Federal Records Act of 1950, is meant to safeguard for the historical record the actions of other officials. It says their communications should be preserved, sent to the National Archives, whose headquarters is down the street from the White House, and are generally subject to requests for information under Freedom of Information Act.
The Presidential Records Act affords presidents the exclusive responsibility for the custody and management of their records while in office, and says the National Archives plays no role except when a president wants to dispose of such materials.
Further, it protects some presidential records from Freedom of Information requests for five years after a president leaves office, and can even block release of some records for up to a dozen years after a president’s term is up. Presidents also can evoke executive privilege to further limit certain types of communication from release.
Once an administration is over, however, there are rules about what even the president must retain for the public. The Presidential Records Act also prohibits presidents from taking records home.
That’s best evidenced by Trump’s 2022 federal indictment for mishandling classified documents. Rather than turn them over the National Archives, Trump hauled boxes of potentially sensitive documents from his first term to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, where they ended piled up in his bedroom, a ballroom and even a bathroom and shower. The FBI raided the property to recover them. The case was later thrown out, though, and then abandoned altogether after Trump won back the White House last November.
Trudy Huskamp Peterson, acting Archivist of the United States from 1993 to 1995, said keeping such records for the public is important because “decision-making always involves conflicting views, and it’s really important to get that internal documentation to see what the arguments were.”
Early presidents often sought to preserve their place in history
The push toward preservation of the historical record predates Nixon and even the United States itself.
American colonists decried the secrecy around the British Parliament, leading early leaders to install transparency safeguards, including initially rejecting the notion of a presidential Cabinet at the Constitutional Convention. Instead, they endorsed requirements that the president receive advice in writing from department secretaries, so that there would be a written record, said Chervinsky, also author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.”
In 1796, Washington asserted what today might be called executive privilege, arguing that some diplomatic conversations had to be private given their sensitive nature. But the following year, the nation’s first president wrote about the need to build a library to house his papers for historians and researchers, Chervinsky said.
Many early presidents kept meticulous records, including John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom wanted to “be seen as a positive figure in history,” Chervinsky said. Others, like Abraham Lincoln, had advisers who understood the importance of the era and documented history carefully.
Other presidents often did not prioritize recordkeeping.
Ulysses S. Grant, who left office in 1877, famously wrote, “The only place I ever found in my life to put a paper so as to find it again was either a side coat-pocket, or the hands of a clerk more careful than myself.” And it wasn’t until 2014 when the Library of Congress, finally clear of legal battles that raged 50 years earlier with Warren G. Harding’s family, released correspondence between the 29th president and his mistress, Carrie Fulton Phillips.
Federally authorized presidential libraries did not exist until 1941, when Franklin D. Roosevelt opened his while still in office, although a mostly privately funded library established for Rutherford B. Hayes, who left the presidency in 1881, served as a model. Roosevelt also installed a White House tape recorder to capture conversations, a practice that mostly continued until Nixon’s Oval Office tapes upended his presidency.
After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, many of his presidential recordings were taken by his family and National Archives officials had to negotiate with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., for public access, Peterson said. President Lyndon B. Johnson recorded phone calls that have informed historians for decades, including his 1964 lament about the Vietnam War: “It just worries the hell out of me.”
Naftali said that in his role at the Nixon library, he saw drafts materials — and the notes used to compile them — that survived among presidential papers, even when the finished documents were shredded in Watergate cover-up efforts.
“You should want accountability whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or an independent,” Naftali said. “You want to know what people did in your name.”
Presidential clashes with archivists predate Trump
Even after new laws saw Nixon’s White House tapes turned over to authorities, it fell to archivists to separate official and political material from the personal, which was potentially subject to more privacy protections. They also had to deal with voice-activated devices clicking on while Oval Office cleaning crews worked.
More recently, President George H.W. Bush’s administration destroyed some informal notes, visitor logs and emails. After President Bill Clinton left office, his former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, pleaded guilty to taking copies of a document about terrorist threats from the National Archives by stuffing them down his pants leg.
President George W. Bush’s administration disabled automatic archiving for some official emails, encouraged some staffers to use private email accounts outside their work addresses and lost 22 million emails that were supposed to have been archived, though they were eventually uncovered in 2009.
The younger Bush also signed an executive order seeking to limit the scope of the Presidential Records Act for himself and past presidents. His successor, President Barack Obama, rescinded that. Obama’s administration nonetheless moved to block release of White House visitor logs, something Trump continued in his first term.
Congress updated the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act in 2014 to encompass electronic messaging, including commercial email services known to be used by government employees to conduct official business. But back then, use of auto-delete apps like Signal was far less common.
“A decade ago, we were still in a Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL world,” said Jason R. Baron, a professor at the University of Maryland and former director of litigation at the National Archives. “The point is, it’s far easier to copy — or forward — a commercial email to a dot-gov address to be preserved, than it is to screenshot a series of messages on an app like Signal.”
Further complicating matters is Trump’s routinely answering cellphone calls, including from reporters. Guidance dating back decades suggests documenting, through ordinary note-taking, the substance of conversations where significant decisions are made, Baron said.
But he also noted that the rules are less clear than those around written communications, including texts. Such communications have already been at the center of advocates’ work to preserve records around DOGE’s work.
The administration has argued DOGE’s efforts are subject to the Presidential Records Act which would potentially shield it from Freedom of Information Act rules. Amey’s Project on Government Oversight sued, maintaining that Musk’s initiative should be covered by the Federal Records Act.
Other advocacy groups have also sued DOGE over compliance with Freedom of Information Act requests, prompting the administration to file a one-page record retention policy in March that was revealed in court filings. It requires DOGE staffers to preserve all work-related communications and records, regardless of format — which, if applied completely across the board, would include apps like Signal.
Relying on ‘an honor system’
There were efforts during the first Trump administration to safeguard transparency, including a memo issued through the Office of White House counsel Don McGahn in February 2017 that reminded White House personnel of the necessity to preserve and maintain presidential records.
Trump’s 2017-2021 administration also established a system to capture messages the president posted to Twitter even after he deleted them.
When Trump frequently ripped up briefing papers and other documents when he was finished with them during his first term, record analysts working across the street from the White House later would gather them up and tape them back together as best they could.
Experts and advocates say no such guidance memo has been issued from the White House this time, though William Fischer, the National Archives acting chief records officer, released a memo this month reminding agencies about rules for maintaining federal records created on apps such as Signal and recommending using “automated tools to comply” with the Federal Records Act.
Trump has recently talked about his place in history, and officials around the president have discussed building a presidential library — potentially in Florida — when he leaves the White House for good. But Trump also long exaggerated his right to keep documents for personal use rather than turn them over to archivists.
“Under the Presidential Records Act, I’m allowed to do all this,” Trump wrote on his social media site in June 2023 after the FBI seized boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago — an assertion the indictment against him disputed.
The White House says Trump was “unjustly prosecuted” on “fake charges” during that case. It points to having recently ordered the declassification of bevies of historical files, including records related to the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother Robert and Martin Luther King.
The administration says it fulfilled records requests from Congress that the administration of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, ignored, and offered instructions that federal agencies should clear out backlogged Freedom of Information Act requests.
It says it ended the Biden-era practice of staffers using Microsoft Teams, where chats were not captured by White House systems. The Biden administration had more than 800 users on Teams, meaning an unknown number of presidential records might have been lost, Trump officials now say, though that is something Biden representatives did not confirm.
But the White House did not answer questions about the possibly of drafting a new memo on record retention like McGahn’s from 2017. Nor did it comment about whether nondisclosure agreements remain in use for White House staffers this term, or speak to Trump’s past habit of tearing up documents.
Chervinsky, of the George Washington Presidential Library, said Congress, the courts and even the public often don’t have the bandwidth to ensure records retention laws are enforced, meaning, “A lot of it is still, I think, an honor system.”
“There aren’t that many people who are practicing oversight,” she said. “So, a lot of it does require people acting in good faith and using the operating systems that they’re supposed to use, and using the filing systems they’re supposed to use.”
Angered by the role the National Archives played in his documents case, meanwhile, Trump fired the ostensibly independent agency’s head, Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan, and named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as her acting replacement.
Peterson, the former acting national archivist, said she still believes key information about the Trump administration will eventually emerge, but “I don’t know how soon.”
“Ultimately things come out,” she said. “That’s just the way the world works.”
Will Weissert covers the White House for The Associated Press.
A juvenile died after a two-vehicle car crash in Decatur on Saturday night, police said.
Decatur police officers and fire and rescue personnel were dispatched on Saturday night at 9:02 p.m. to the intersection of Beltline Road SW and Westmead Street SW. When officers arrived, one of the vehicles was fully engulfed in flames, and the juvenile inside the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene.
Decatur police then took one person involved in the crash into custody for driving under the influence, the department said in a statement. The police department’s traffic unit is actively investigating the crash.
No one involved in the crash has been identified at this time, and the police department has yet to release further details.