Leaking By Leaving: Guest Finds Trump-Putin Summit Docs In Alaskan Hotel Room

Failures

from the take-the-towels,-leave-the-itinerary dept

While this latest bit of low-key embarrassment may not be a black eye for the administration, it certainly isn’t putting any more lipstick on this pig. Whatever you may think about the recent summit meeting between these two international besties, you can be assured that some of the attendees thought even less of it than you did.

Is this how we’re leaking things to the press now? Seems careless, since there are multiple ways of identifying who left these documents behind. That being said, no one is named in the NPR reporting, which covers what was uncovered by hotel guests who happened to find these documents just sitting in a tray of one of the hotel’s public printers.

Papers with U.S. State Department markings, found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan hotel, revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the Aug. 15 meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Anchorage.

Eight pages, that appear to have been produced by U.S. staff and left behind accidentally, shared precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government employees.

The documents [PDF] are embedded below. What’s exposed in them is indeed sensitive information, but the sensitivity is directly proportionate to a specific time frame, which means a discovery that happened after the summit was over isn’t nearly as problematic as anything discovered before or during. The dates, times, and specific rooms used for meetings don’t mean nearly as much as they might have while this summit was still ongoing.

Still, it’s yet another lapse in judgment from people you might have assumed would know better, but have been disabused of that notion pretty much incessantly since the installation of Trump’s cabinet member picks. At this point, the administration has already invited journalists to Signal chats discussing military operations as they unfold and exposed ICE operations with ill-advised social media posts because the person heading that part of the administration loves a photo op more than she loves shooting pets that make her angry.

One of things that immediately stands out as having Trump’s tiny fingerprints all over it is the menu for the luncheon that never happened.

During the summit Friday, lunch was apparently cancelled. But it was intended to be a simple, three-course meal, the documents showed. After a green salad, the world leaders would dine on filet mignon and halibut olympia. Crème brûlée would be served for dessert.

Not just any green salad, mind you, but one served with “champagne vinaigrette.” I’m sure it’s the word “champagne” that earned Trump’s approval, not that he probably cares one way or another what’s served on a salad he isn’t going to eat.

Here’s the menu as it was printed (and left on a public printer):

Between the font selection and the menu options, this looks like something being offered by Waldorf Astoria in 1925, rather than by the most powerful nation in the world in 2025. And one assumes the filet mignon would have been served a la Trump (charred into submission; walloped with ketchup). Fortunately for Putin, the lunch was cancelled, preventing him from a.) having to witness Trump “enjoy” a steak, and b.) having to experience a fish swimming in mayonnaise. (Your mileage may vary.)

Low-hanging mockery aside, it’s still a problem. And since it is actually a problem, the White House is, of course, pretending it’s not a problem, calling the eight pages of information nothing more than a “multi-page lunch menu.” Even if you ignore all the information specifying who will be in which rooms at what particular times, there’s plenty of other information that generally doesn’t appear in lunch menus, no matter how many pages they run.

Pages 2 through 5 of the documents listed the names and phone numbers of three U.S. staff members as well as the names of 13 U.S. and Russian state leaders. The list provided phonetic pronouncers for all the Russian men expected at the summit, including “Mr. President POO-tihn.”

Even if this (perhaps intentional!) leak didn’t threaten national security, it’s emblematic of an administration that tends to operate with all the finesse of a bludgeon wielded by a bull in the china shop that is the world we live in. To expect better than this is human. To expect to see better than this, from this administration, is self-delusion.

Filed Under: alaska, donald trump, leaks, opsec, russia, state department, trump administration, vladimir putin