National Archives reportedly retrieves Kim Jong Un's 'love letters' to Trump from Mar-a-Lago

The National Archives and Records Administration — which is charged with preserving all presidential records — was forced to retrieve boxes of documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last month that were improperly removed from the White House.

The boxes were supposed to be turned over to the agency at the end of his presidency.

According to the Washington Post, the items included Trump’s correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — which Trump had described as “love letters” between him and the elusive dictator — as well as the letter former President Barack Obama left for him before leaving office.

The Presidential Records Act requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.

A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately return requests for comment.

In a statement, the National Archives said it "arranged for the transport" from Mar-a-Lago 15 boxes containing presidential records that had been improperly removed from the White House, and that Trump’s representatives have informed the agency that "they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives."

Last week, the National Archives confirmed reports that records turned over from the Trump White House “included paper records that had been torn up” by the former president.

“White House records management officials during the Trump Administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records,” the statement read. “These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump Administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House.”

The statement came after the Post reported that some of the 700 pages of documents that the National Archives transmitted to the House select committee investigating the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, had “been ripped up and then taped back together.”

Trump had sought to block the release of the White House’s records, which reportedly include drafts of executive orders and speeches, presidential diaries and handwritten notes concerning the events of Jan. 6.

But last month the Supreme Court denied the former president’s request to prevent the select committee from obtaining the records, and the National Archives immediately began the process of transmitting the trove to the panel.

In 2018, Politico reported that Trump had a habit of routinely tearing presidential records into shreds, forcing staffers armed with Scotch tape to piece together fragments of paper that were “so small they looked like confetti.”

But Trump apparently did not rip up his letters with North Korea’s leader.

Author Bob Woodward obtained 25 of the letters, excerpts of which were published in his 2020 book “Rage.” In them, Kim repeatedly refers to Trump as “Your Excellency” and writes that the “deep and special friendship between us will work as a magical force.”

Trump and Kim met during two summits, in 2018 and 2019. In one of the letters obtained by Woodward, Kim says that another meeting between the two would be “reminiscent of a scene from a fantasy film.”