The Trump administration is facing harsh criticism after sensitive documents detailing a high-level summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were discovered sitting in a public hotel printer — uncollected, unprotected, and marked with U.S. State Department headers.
The eight-page packet was found on the morning of August 15 in the business center of Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, Alaska — just hours before Trump and Putin were scheduled to meet at nearby Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The documents, obtained by NPR, contained sensitive information including meeting times, phone numbers of U.S. government staff, seating arrangements, and even the ceremonial gift Trump intended to give Putin: an “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”
One page stated: “POTUS to President Putin, American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”
The documents also included a full schedule of the day’s meetings, with exact room names inside the military base. Another section listed 13 U.S. and Russian officials by name, with phonetic pronunciations for each — including “Mr. President POO-tihn.” Three U.S. staff members were named, along with their direct government phone numbers.
Pages 6 and 7 described a formal luncheon in Putin’s honor — which was later canceled — including a three-course meal of green salad, filet mignon, halibut olympia, and crème brûlée. The printed seating chart showed Trump facing Putin directly, surrounded by key officials including Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Susie Wiles, and Scott Bessent.
National security expert and UCLA law professor Jon Michaels didn’t mince words:
“It strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and the incompetence of the administration,” he said. “You just don’t leave things in printers. It’s that simple.”
Despite the sensitive nature of the material, the White House downplayed the issue. Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly dismissed the documents as nothing more than a “multi-page lunch menu.” The State Department declined to comment altogether.
But the backlash is growing, with critics pointing to this as yet another instance of Trump-era recklessness around sensitive government information. Just days earlier, ICE agents mistakenly added an unauthorized person to a private group chat during a manhunt. In March, a journalist was accidentally included in a conversation about U.S. military operations in Yemen.
Leaving summit documents containing contact info, room locations, and diplomatic schedules in a public printer — just feet away from hotel guests — has reignited concerns over basic operational security under Trump’s leadership.
“This isn’t just careless,” said one former intelligence official. “It’s reckless. And it shows just how unserious this team was about protecting U.S. interests.”
