Why is Trump reluctant to return classified White House documents?

For four years, former President Donald Trump viewed the federal government and political agencies operating in his name as an extension of his private real estate company.
He felt it all belonged to him, integrated with the Trump brand he had nurtured for decades.
He has repeatedly used "my generals" to refer to active and retired military leaders serving in government.  The cash he raised on the campaign trail or for the Republican National Committee is what he calls "my money."  When it comes to Republican leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, he says "my Kevin."

And what about the White House papers?
When he was urged to return boxes of documents, he repeatedly said, "They're mine," three of Trump's advisers said. Trump brought the documents to his Palm Beach, Fla., office in January 2021.  The private club Mar-a-Lago, some of which are highly classified documents the National Archives is looking for.  The nearly 18-month tug-of-war between the administration and Trump ended in an extraordinary move -- the FBI raided the Mar-a-Lago estate last week looking for the documents.
As with many other things surrounding Trump, the question is, why is this happening?  Why did he insist on refusing to hand over government documents that legally did not belong to him, sparking yet another legal crisis?  As with many things related to Trump, there is no easy answer.
The following are the main possibilities.
exciting document
For decades, Trump has stuffed a collection of gadgets into his Trump Tower office — including a giant shoe that once belonged to basketball player Shaquille O’Neal — to show off.  He also regards the secrets of the country as a small souvenir to show off.  According to White House aides, he likes to brag about his access to the documents, including letters from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which he often waves to visitors to make his advisers nervous.

Some of the letters were taken to the Mar-a-Lago estate by Trump.
Early on, intelligence fascinated the former president.  Trump stunned his national security team in May 2017 when he riffed on classified intelligence provided by Israel during a meeting with two senior Russian government officials.
Two years later, Trump was overjoyed when intelligence agents briefed him on a high-resolution photo of a failed Iranian rocket launch.  "I want to tweet," Trump told the CIA director, national security adviser and director of national intelligence, according to a person with firsthand knowledge of the matter.
Officials tried hard to stop him, but Trump shared the photo with his then-63 million Twitter followers.

"I am the country"
Trump has simply ignored the efforts of previous administrations to prevent conflicts of interest during the presidency.  Even though he has publicly stated that he has handed over all management to his son, he has never detached himself from his company and has kept a close eye on the state of his property.
According to his advisers and several outside observers, Trump lived up to Louis XIV's "I am the country."
"Based on my experience dealing with him, which is corroborated by the defenders around him, his behaviour seems to fit the pattern of being a 'king' who is one with the state," lawyer Mark Zeid said.  , who regularly handles national security and security clearance-related cases, including during the Trump presidency.  appears to sincerely believe that everything he comes into contact with belongs to him, including possibly classified government documents."
Trump rarely uses @POTUS, the Twitter account assigned to the president, preferring to have his social media director Dan Scavino promote accounts under Trump's personal name.
The former president has also routinely rejected attempts to enforce outside rules, regulations or norms in the White House, insisting that his close advisers have absolute immunity from some congressional subpoenas.
"The president is not a king," wrote Justice Kitangi Brown Jackson, then a federal court judge in Washington, in 2019 when she ordered Trump's former White House counsel, Donald McGahn, over objections from the White House  II testified on what House Democrats called a pattern of presidential obstruction of justice.  "They are not dealing with subjects bound by loyalty or blood, and they have no right to control the fate of others," she added.
Habit of tearing paper
While Trump White House officials have been warned to properly handle sensitive material, aides say Trump has little to do with the security or protection of government documents.
Aides have long said Trump has a hoarding habit, throwing all kinds of paper — sensitive material, news clippings and all sorts of other items — into cardboard boxes, and wherever he goes, valet or other personal assistants will  Follow him with these cardboard boxes.
Trump has repeatedly sent materials to the White House residence, but it's not always clear where they end up.  He has sometimes asked to leave material after intelligence briefings, but aides said he had little interest in the briefing documents themselves, and they wondered what he wanted them for.
He also has the habit of tearing paper, from everyday documents to confidential materials, and then throwing scraps of paper on the ground or in the trash.  Officials had to glue the pieces together and re-document them so they could be preserved as required by the Presidential Records Act.
In some cases, Trump not only tore up documents — some with his handwriting — but threw the pieces down the toilet, which occasionally blocked White House drains.  He did the same thing on at least two foreign trips, the former official said.
Outside the White House, the Mar-a-Lago estate and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, have set up safe houses where Trump can view sensitive documents, though he rarely uses them.
For example, in early 2017, when North Korea conducted a missile test, Trump was meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his Mar-a-Lago estate.  Instead of returning to the safe house, Trump and his advisers turned on the flashlights on their iPhones on the patio to check the security documents.  Paid members of the Aragog estate and their guests watched the scene, took pictures and posted them on social media.
"No other president always stays in hotels," said John Bolton, Trump's third national security adviser.
Over time, Trump has bristled at the guardrails people have tried to put on him, especially his second White House chief of staff John Kelly, who has sought to impose stricter rules on classified information.
Personal information
Bolton said Trump never told him about his intention to take the document and use it for anything other than a memorial.
It's "kind of like wanting to grab something for some reason," Bolton said.  "He may not even fully understand" why he is doing certain things.
But officials are concerned — especially that the documents are falling into the wrong hands.
Other advisers wondered if Trump kept some of the documents because they contained details of people he knew.
A former administration official said biographies of foreign leaders were among the items the president received during his trip abroad.  One version is unclassified and fairly routine.  But another version is confidential and may contain many personal details.
Among the documents seized by the FBI at the Mar-a-Lago estate was one on Emmanuel Macron, which read "Related Information: French President."

Myles Brennan Biography, Age, Height, Family, Career & More