Details of visitors to Mar-a-Lago during Trump's visits to be revealed

United States President Donald Trump's visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort has been a much-discussed topic ever since his inauguration last January. One of the reasons for concerns was the fact that there was no information on the people that the President met during those visits. However, the Trump Administration has now decided to share details of all the people who were present at the resort during the President's visits.

A welcome step

The President's regular visits to the Mar-a-Lago resort has given rise to plenty of concerns and plenty of institutions have been seeking information about the specifics of his visits to the resort. According to a report in the Washington Post, the details of the visitors to Mar-a-Lago during Trump's visits are now going to be released by the Department of Homeland Security and it only seems appropriate considering the sort of bad press that these visits had received. The National Security Archive, Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed lawsuits seeking the details.

The latest development is a response to those lawsuits.

Following his inauguration in January, the President visited the resort a total of 7 times over the months of February, March, and April. The lawsuits had asked about information on all those who visited the resort as and when the President was present and Homeland Security which is in charge of the security arrangements is going to furnish the details this September.

A blow to the White House?

The Trump White House, in a departure from the days of Obama, does not share details of White House visitors and does not do so for other Presidential visits either. However, the latest development does seem like a reversal for the White House. However, it is important to point out the Obama White House only started sharing visitor logs after the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed a series of lawsuits regarding the same.

So, it might mean that the Trump administration might eventually be forced to reveal visitor logs.

Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington welcomed the decision and went on to say that the details of all visitors to the White House should also be shared. He said, "We are glad that as a result of this case, this information will become public for meetings at his personal residences, but it needs to be public for meetings at the White House as well."