One observation many have made about former Republican President Donald Trump is he's a man of odd obsessions.
During his time on the campaign trail and in office, Trump frequently focused on crowd size at his many MAGA rallies and his inauguration. He focused on whether the press praised or criticized him.
He was accused of being obsessed with former Secretary of State and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and with his popularity among dictators. He obsessed over his own intelligence and physical fitness.
He was so obsessed with Twitter he reportedly went through withdrawal after being banned from the platform and eventually created his own Twitter clone social media platform to get his fix.
He is so obsessed with the idea of someone tampering with his food he ate fast food and drank Diet Coke almost exclusively while in the White House where a private kitchen staff could have made him meals to order 24/7.
While many people have obsesssions, Trump’s focus on minutiae is often criticized for distracting him from the real issues at hand.
Now with his current legal woes, Trump has a new obsession—an evidentiary photo released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) of documents found by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during a search of Trump's Florida home turned resort Mar-a-Lago.
@kaitlancollins/Twitter
In post after post and interview after interview, Trump keeps explaining he didn't throw anything on the floor—the FBI did.
In another post on his struggling Truth Social platform, Trump wrote:
"There seems to be confusion as to the 'picture' where documents were sloppily thrown on the floor and then released photographically for the world to see, as if that's what the FBI found when they broke into my home."
"Wrong!"
"They took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet, making it look like a big 'find' for them."
"They dropped them, not me - Very deceiving...And remember, we could have NO representative, including lawyers, present during the Raid."
"They were told to wait outside."
@realDonaldTrump/Twitter
But is anyone really confused?
Or is it just Trump?
The photo is fairly standard for evidence collection.
Items are spread across a flat surface, pertinent information visible—the documents' classification labeling as SECRET and TOP SECRET, sensitive information is obscured with white blocking, and an evidence log number and ruler appear in frame for reference.
But the 45th POTUS is so obsessed with telling the world he didn't throw documents on the floor, his explanations are revealing holes in his own defense.
Trump has bounced between defenses including he had documents but only ones that belonged to him, to he had documents locked in a secure location but everything was returned—something his lawyers put in writing then signed, to he had no documents—the FBI planted them, to he had documents but nothing classified or top secret because he declassified everything.
But the story changed again.
According to his latest post, Trump had documents clearly marked classified and top secret, but they were all in cartons.
People have questions, but no one is asking who threw documents on the floor.
@maggieNYT/Twitter
The final fallout of Trump's mishandling of government documents—property he was required to turn over to the National Archives and Records Administration—has yet to be determined.
The only thing that is clear is Donald Trump did not throw the documents in that DoJ photo on the floor.
Just in case there's any confusion.
@SecretaryBurgum/X
@Doug Ellin/X
@evanrachelwood/Instagram