When I heard that President Trump had his White House advisors and staff sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), I thought nothing of it. So much for my assumptions, eh? The ACLU has an admirably brief remark on these NDAs:
“Public employees can’t be gagged by private agreements. These so-called NDAs are unconstitutional and unenforceable.”
Which is admirably sensible in a public institution in which we all have an explicit stake, isn’t it? If a White House staffer witnesses some breach of the Constitution, s/he should not have to weigh their future economic fortunes against their duty to report the violation. Nor should they be restrained from writing a memoir, for that matter, about public matters.
If President Trump should like to complain that his private matters should not be a matter of public airing, then he should not bring them into the White House. That is one of the virtues of divestment in the first place.
