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Following the FBI's seizure of 11 sets of classified documents from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property, one former White House staffer says Trump's tendency to show off secret information was well known during his time in office.
According to former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, the now 76-year-old Trump treated classified information as "his own shiny toy he's showing off to his friends to impress them" — and his eagerness to share the info, she added, often trumped any fear that it might put lives in danger.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Grisham said Trump was "careless" with sensitive information.
The AP highlights several moments during Trump's tenure when the handling of classified information was called into question, such as a 2018 dinner with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the patio of Mar-a-Lago, where fellow diners took cellphone photos of the world leaders reviewing reportedly classified documents relating to a North Korean missile test.
And then there was the time Trump showed off a U.S. military dog named Conan that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Conan, a Belgian Malinois, was paraded before reporters, Grisham said, in spite of a briefing in which White House staffers were instructed the dog could not be photographed. The fear, they said, was that his handlers could be put in danger by the photos.
But Trump, Grisham added, wasn't dissuaded.
"Because he wanted the publicity, out went Conan," Grisham told the AP. "It's an example of him not caring if he put lives in danger."
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