Trump didn't know his daily schedule was public until final weeks of presidency: ex-aide

Donald Trump apparently didn't realize his daily schedule was public until the waning weeks of his presidency, according to his aides' testimony.

The White House releases a schedule each day of a president's official activities, such as briefings, meetings and public appearances, and Trump's team did the same until Jan. 5, 2021, when former deputy press secretary Judd Deere said they switched to a boilerplate statement saying he would have "many calls and have many meetings."

“Every evening we prepared and released the daily guidance for the following day of the president’s public schedule," Deere told the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. "Beginning sometime around mid- to late December, the president discovered that, for the first time, my understanding, that we released a public schedule of his to the public."

“He wanted to change the way we did that,” Deere added, "and so what became the new version of the public schedule was basically a couple of sentences about what his day would consist of, rather than specific times and titles of events and an outline form."

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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany approved guidance drafted by Deere on the day before the insurrection that mentioned Trump's speech at the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the aide told congressional investigators.

“President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening," the schedule read. "He will make many calls and have many meetings. The President will depart for the Ellipse at 10:50am to deliver remarks at the Save America Rally.”

\u201cThe reason why the WH daily schedule shifted to the president will have "many calls and have many meetings" format towards the end of the Trump WH was that Trump finally figured out the WH daily schedule was public, Judd Deere testified\u201d

— Nicholas Wu (@Nicholas Wu) 1672172498