Trump's explanations for his handling of classified documents continue to evolve

In his first public remarks since the leak of a 2021 audio recording in which he appears to brag about possessing a classified document after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump dismissed the bombshell tape, claiming the exchange wasn’t at all what it sounded like.

“I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth. It was bravado,” Trump told reporters from Semafor and ABC News in an interview conducted onboard his campaign plane Tuesday. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”

What Trump said hours earlier

In a Fox News Digital interview earlier in the day, Trump insisted he was referring to “building plans” and plans for golf courses strewn about his desk.

"I had a whole desk full of lots of papers and mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories having to do with many, many subjects,” Trump said.

Asked about his reference to “plans” by the reporters on his plane, Trump insisted they were related to his real estate and golf course ventures.

“Did I use the word plans?” he said. “What I’m referring to is magazines, newspapers, plans of buildings. I had plans of buildings. You know, building plans? I had plans of a golf course.”

Trump’s insistence that he was boasting about having the classified material without actually displaying it is the just latest explanation offered by the former president, who earlier pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges stemming from the Justice Department's investigation into his handling of sensitive documents and alleged efforts to obstruct the probe.

What was on the tape?

The recording, which was released Monday by CNN, captured a 2021 meeting at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he can be heard discussing what he calls “highly confidential” military plans for an attack on Iran with an aide and other unidentified people working on a biography of former chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The former president explains to the group that he could have declassified the documents when he was in office, but he did not.

“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this … these are the papers,” Trump says on the recording. “See, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t.”

“Isn’t that interesting?” he says, adding: “It’s so cool.”

Why is it significant?

A partial transcript of the audio recording was included in Trump’s 37-count indictment, which was unsealed earlier this month.

The tape is thought to be a key piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing investigation because it appears to undercut the former president’s claims that he’d previously declassified the material.

It also suggests that boxes containing classified material were not limited to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where the FBI seized more than two dozen boxes with documents marked “top secret” or “confidential” last August.

What else has Trump said?

Asked by Fox News host Bret Baier why he would bring a classified document with him to Bedminster, Trump demurred.

“There was no document there,” he said. “That was not a document per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”

In interviews after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump suggested without evidence that he declassified all the documents he took from the White House.

Last September, the former president told former Fox News host Sean Hannity that he believed he had the power to declassify documents with his mind.

“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” Trump said, adding: “You’re the president of the United States. You can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it.”