And, as of the Barack Obama presidency, the White House has released voluminous records on who visited the executive mansion grounds so citizens could know who was meeting with the president and his staff.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer responded during Monday's press briefing to questions about why the Trump administration chose to keep its visitor logs secret rather than opting for more transparency.
Earlier, White House communications director Michael Dubke said the move would protect the USA national security interests as well as the privacy of those visiting the Trump administration.
"We're following the law as both the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act prescribe it", Spicer said.
He also knocked the Obama administration's decision to publicize the visitor logs, which left off some visitors due to national security concerns, arguing that they could keep some people off the visitor log list "for whatever reason".
While President Donald Trump moved to Washington DC upon his inauguration, Melania and Barron stayed behind in New York City so the 11-year-old could finish out the school year at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School.
President Trump's vacations already set to surpass Obama's total travel expenses
Trump is scheduled to depart Washington D.C.at 4:20 p.m. and arrive at Palm Beach International Airport around 6:35 p.m. He's also played at the two courses he owns near his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida .
Spicer's comments, made at a White House briefing, comes as the administration has been under fire on multiple fronts for what critics say is a lack of openness in dealing with the public.
Much of the money came from small donors who gave less than $200 in response to email solicitations urging them to support the president's agenda and stymie "the Fake News and Democrats in Congress", as one put it. President Obama had an open policy for eight years wherein logs were released.
Pressed whether Trump was prepared to rule out ever releasing his tax returns, Spicer demurred: "I'll have to get back to you on that". But there were painfully few ways to sort through them, the logs included multiple people who didn't end up going to the White House, and the database could produce false positives ― a visitor with the same name as another.
"These 100 days have been such a success", he said.
"We're reviewing that now", he told a reporter in late March.
Ivanka Trump and Kushner dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife at Mar-a-Lago April 6 within hours of China approving three new trademarks for her, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
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