Archives agency stored George H. W. Bush's records in a temporary facility

Posted on : October 18, 2022

The claim: George H. W. Bush took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and former Chinese restaurant

Former President Donald Trump has tried to deflect the blame from allegations he improperly stored classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate by falsely accusing his predecessors of mishandling their own records upon leaving office.

An Oct. 9 tweet shows a clip of Trump at an Oct. 8 Nevada rally claiming that former President George H. W. Bush took his records to a surprising location.

“George H. W. Bush took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant where they combined them,” Trump said in the clip. “So they’re in a bowling alley slash Chinese restaurant.”

Bush’s son, Jeb Bush, tweeted in response: “I am so confused. My dad enjoyed a good Chinese meal and enjoyed the challenge of 7 10 split. What the heck is up with you?”

A screenshot of the Twitter exchange was shared to Facebook on Oct. 10, where it accumulated over 100 shares in a week.

But the claim is false.

The National Archives and Records Administration gained control of George H. W. Bush’s records in 1993 when he left office in accordance with the 1978 Presidential Records Act, according to a statement. The agency stored his records in a temporary facility that was once a bowling alley and Chinese restaurant.

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USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment. Liz Harrington, Trump’s spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment.

Archives agency manages George H.W. Bush’s records

Under the Presidential Records Act, the archives agency must determine temporary spaces to store presidential records from former administrations until a permanent presidential library is built to house them.

The agency wrote in an Oct. 11 statement that it securely moved presidential records from the George H. W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan administrations to temporary facilities it leased near the location of presidential libraries that “met strict archival and security standards” and were supervised and staffed exclusively by agency employees.

“Reports that indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former presidents or their representatives after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading,” the statement says.

Fact check: False claim that the Obama Foundation stored classified documents in a warehouse

The agency stored George H. W. Bush’s records in a former bowling alley in Texas that was converted into a storage space with “simple offices, a massive, fire-resistant vault and row after row of steel shelves,” according to the Washington Post in 1993. The records were housed there while his presidential library was under construction on Texas A&M University.

Some of his records were also moved next door “in what used to be the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant” due to lack of space, according to the Associated Press in 1994.

The records were eventually transferred to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 1997, and currently remain there.

CNN, PolitiFact, the AP and Factcheck.org have also debunked the claim.

USA TODAY and independent fact-checking organizations have debunked similar claims made by Trump, including baseless assertions that Obama took 33 million documents, many of which were purportedly classified, to Chicago, that Clinton took millions of documents from the White House to a former car dealership in Arkansas and that George W. Bush stored 68 million pages in a warehouse in Texas.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that George H.W. Bush took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and former Chinese restaurant. The archives agency gained custody of Bush’s records when he left office in 1993. It stored his records in a secure, temporary facility that was once a bowling alley and Chinese restaurant.

Our fact-check sources:

  • CNN, Oct. 11, Fact check: National Archives debunks Trump’s false claim about Bush documents

  • PolitiFact, Oct. 10, A bowling alley, a Chinese restaurant, and George H.W. Bush: What was Donald Trump talking about?

  • Associated Press, Oct. 11, FACT FOCUS: Sorting papers and facts in an ex-bowling alley

  • Factcheck.org, Oct. 11, Trump’s Faulty ‘Double Standard’ Document Claim

  • National Archives and Records Administration, accessed Oct. 13, Press Statements in Response to Media Queries About Presidential Records

  • The Washington Post, Aug. 30, 1993, THE TRIP DOWN BUSH’S MEMORY LANE STARTS HUMBLY IN OLD BOWLING ALLEY

  • Associated Press, June 26, 1994, Bush Library Team Plays First Inning in Bowling Alley : History: Yale baseball glove, gifts from foreign governments, documents, and old furniture from the ex-president’s childhood are included. Officials are preparing for museum’s opening in 1997. (archived)

  • People Magazine, Feb. 4, A Sick Boy’s Gift to Barbara Bush and a Wartime Letter to the Kids: Discoveries in a Presidential Archive

  • National Archives and Records Administration, accessed Oct. 14, Guidance on Presidential Records

  • USA TODAY, Oct. 3, Fact check: Archives agency transferred 30 million unclassified Obama records to Chicago

  • Washington Post, Oct. 10, Trump’s nonsensical riff on past presidents and classified documents

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Archives agency managed George H. W. Bush’s records

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