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National Archives to save all of Trump’s tweets—even the deleted ones

It's not clear yet exactly how they will be archived.

 

Lauren L'Amie

Tech

Posted on Apr 5, 2017   Updated on May 24, 2021, 6:32 pm CDT

If the internet itself isn’t enough of an eternal time capsule for all the things you wish would disappear forever, the National Archives and Records Administration is here to help. President Donald Trump‘s tweetstorm will now be forever saved in the archives, including all those he deletes or corrects.

The head of the archives, David S. Ferriero, sent a letter to two Democratic senators last week explaining that the White House has assured him that it’s saving every last one of Trump’s Twitter blasts, according to the Associated Press.

Ferriero contacted the White House because the Presidential Records Act, which mandates the preservation of all presidential records, now requires tweets to be a part of that preservation—even those in which Trump misspells words or others he deletes altogether.

The call to save Trump’s tweets doesn’t just include his correspondence under the @POTUS handle, but all the tweets under his @realDonaldTrump account as well.

Ferriero’s letter to Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) was intended to reassure them that the archives and the White House are dedicated to maintaining transparency in keeping track of presidential records. Concerns with maintaining security and privacy have been paramount during Trump’s presidency so far—during his first week in office, President Trump was notably forced to hand over his Twitter-famous Samsung Galaxy smartphone for a secure, encrypted phone during his first week in office.

Ferriero did not specify just how the tweets will be saved and officially archived. But after four years of Twitter mining, the final collection will either act as a comprehensive guide to all of President Trump’s thoughts and movements or just read like a really weird book with a lot of typos.

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*First Published: Apr 5, 2017, 5:00 am CDT