Former President Donald Trump is known for spewing bizarre claims at his infamously off-the-cuff rally speeches. He absurdly claimed that wind turbines cause cancer and that liberals were targeting the pressure of America's showers.
Another weird complaint from the former President revolved around toilets, and new reporting from Maggie Haberman of the New York Times may have just given insight for Trump's fixation on flushing.
With revelations that Trump's team improperly removed or destroyed White House documents required by law to be submitted to the National Archives, there's been enhanced scrutiny of the former President's handling of records during his tenure.
In her latest book, Haberman reports that White House residence staff frequently found documents flushed down the toilet, often resulting in clogs that had to be removed by maintenance. The staffers suspected Trump himself was behind the flushing.
The new reporting has revived Trump's bizarre comments on toilet flushing during the 2020 campaign.
Here's a refresher.
Here's Trump saying that he's heard from many people complaining about "flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times." pic.twitter.com/75HXYcH4xq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 6, 2019
Trump said in 2019:
"People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once. They end up using more water, so EPA is looking at that very strongly, at my suggestion."
At a rally, the year following, Trump said he would no longer talk about toilets:
“It’s the shower, it’s the sink, and you know the third element in the bathroom. But I don’t say it, because every time I say it, [reporters] only talk about that one. Because it’s sort of gross to talk about, right? So I won’t talk about the fact that people have to flush their toilet 15 times. I will not talk about it. I’ll only talk about showers.”
Now, social media users are wondering if Trump's commode comments were made from frustration at their ineffectiveness in disposing of documents.
So I guess we now know the real reason why Trump was so obsessed with having to flush the toilet 10 or 15 times: He was clogging White House toilets, trying to flush documents. Fucking moron. pic.twitter.com/Rm1Ws6UYJu
— cαηα∂α нαтεs тя☭мρ (@Trump_Detester) February 10, 2022
No wonder he had a problem with toilet flushing……https://t.co/Omen7Jochc
— Brett Harwood (@HarwoodBrett) February 10, 2022
So when Trump complained about having to flush toilets 15 times it was because he clogged them with documents?
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) February 10, 2022
Remember Trump’s absurd rant about how you had to flush modern toilets ten times and they just weren’t any good?
It was because he was trying to illegally flush a bunch of presidential records down his
Literally no matter how dumb and crooked you think he is, he’s worse https://t.co/ahigKMALnd
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) February 10, 2022
Flashback: Is this why Trump was always complaining about flushing toilets? https://t.co/oZuUsS9CZ4
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 10, 2022
Trump: People are flushing 10 times. 15 times. They end up using more water.
Nah bro, YOU were flushing 10 or 15 times just to make that evidence disappear. Literally everything is a confession. pic.twitter.com/vhQrHUD7pQ
— I Smoked The Gazpacho Police (@BlackKnight10k) February 10, 2022
Haberman received pushback from the reporting as well, with some accusing her of sitting on relevant information until closer to the release of her book.
To make money from a book deal, Maggie Haberman hid the fact that Trump was illegally flushing documents while he was president. Book release: October 4th, 2022. The January 6th Committee should subpoena Haberman immediately, and make her book manuscript available to the public.
— Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) February 10, 2022
If a team of astronauts had set out for Mars nine months ago and then sent us a message when they landed, that would have been faster reporting than the time it took for Maggie Haberman to inform the public that Trump is literally flushing government documents down the toilet.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) February 10, 2022
Maggie Haberman knew Trump was destroying government documents, and told no one. She waited to reveal it in a book after Trump already left office, now that there’s no way to prove it. https://t.co/ExeIUp0alK
— Biden did that! (@gdigitalzsmooth) February 10, 2022
In a statement, Trump denied ever flushing documents down the toilet, despite other reporters confirming the story.
Ash Stanton/Facebook
Laura Sprinkle/Facebook
Akira Karasu/Facebook
Cevanna Gilbert/Facebook
Troy Adam/Facebook
@GovPressOffice/X
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social