Washington, DC – Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Tom Udall (D-NM) released the following statement on President Donald Trump’s visit to the Trump Organization’s Mar-a-Lago club this past weekend, where numerous accounts suggest national security information was put at risk. Earlier this month, Whitehouse and Udall wrote to the White House asking who is paying the hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary for unlimited access to the newly christened executive mansion in West Palm Beach.
“Two weeks ago, we asked for a list of the members who are paying $200,000 a pop to gain access to President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago ‘Winter White House’. We asked about what steps were being taken to screen members and guests to ensure they presented no security risks. We’ve heard nothing.
“This weekend, CNN reported that the President was ‘swarmed’ with club guests. We saw pictures strewn about social media by Mar-a-Lago guests mugging for the camera with the nuclear football. Worst of all, we learned that guests in the Winter White House dining room were treated to the President’s discussion of a North Korean missile launch with a foreign head of state, replete with sensitive documents strewn about the dinner table.
“During the campaign, we listened to month upon month of Donald Trump complaining about the handling of important national security information. We’ve had years of inconclusive investigations by House Republicans over emails and classified documents. Now we have unknown and unvetted Mar-a-Lago members looking over the President’s shoulder as he conducts our foreign policy.
“This is America’s foreign policy, not this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live. We urge our Republican colleagues to start taking this Administration’s rash and unprofessional conduct seriously before there are consequences we all regret.”
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