President Donald Trump leaves large blocks of "private time" on his Oval Office schedule for spontaneous meetings and phone chats with ex-aides, friends, media figures, lawmakers and members of his Cabinet — an old habit he’s carried over from his business days that has frustrated some West Wing aides.

Trump wrote in his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal” that his loose scheduling practices as a real estate magnate at the Trump Organization helped him be “imaginative.” Still, nine White House officials, former aides and personal confidantes interviewed by POLITICO were split on whether the freewheeling set-up, which can allow friends and unofficial advisers to whisper in the president’s ear on policy issues, is productive.


White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump’s schedule has fixed linchpins, which include national security briefings, meetings with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, roundtables with business executives and public bill signings.

"He has very structured things that take place throughout his schedule, but I think to try to change who he is as a person would be a mistake,” Sanders said. “I think it would be a mistake to cut the president off…I think it allows him to be a better president by engaging and having some flexibility."

But other aides said Trump’s free time poses a concern. "There may be a block of time, two hours of staff time, who knows what’s going on during that time, anything could happen,” said one White House official.

Tommy Binion, director of policy outreach for The Heritage Foundation, said he was part of a group of about 40 conservative leaders that was meeting with Vice President Mike Pence for a routine listening session in March, when their host started getting notes from staff. Soon, the group was escorted into the Oval Office for a surprise audience with Trump. A White House official confirmed Trump’s appearance was unplanned.

“It was a jaw-dropping experience,” Binion said told POLITICO.

The conservative leaders were not the only ones summoned on short notice to see the president. David Bossie, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager who launched pro-Trump nonprofit “America First Policies,” has been called to the White House on several occasions for Oval Office meetings with just a few hours’ notice, according to two people familiar with the meetings.

Some visitors go through the typical channels to meet with the president, while others reached by POLITICO said they called the cell phone of his longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller. Some old friends still go through his Trump Tower assistant, Rhona Graff, as POLITICO previously reported.

Trump regularly calls ex-aides such as Roger Stone and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and POLITICO reported last week that he talks as often as twice a week to informal adviser Steve Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone Group who helped convince the president to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or Dreamers, program.

The president has a standing block of time on his schedule each work week that he uses as legislative affairs outreach. It's an hour during the week in which he writes notes to or calls legislators, or has one or more of them in the White House to maintain an ongoing relationship with the Hill.

Trump also uses his downtime to watch television. Earlier this month, he spotted Rep. Dana Rohrabacher defending him on Fox News. Moments after the California lawmaker left the set, Trump was on the phone, inviting him to the Oval Office. Other times he’ll call in his own advisers to discuss something he saw on the news, one White House staffer said.

"Number one, he's lonely. It's part of why he's reached out to me," said one confidante of the president who Trump has contacted many times by phone since taking office. "He's always been a creature of routine."

That routine traces back at least to his days in real estate. "I try not to schedule too many meetings," Trump wrote in “The Art of the Deal.” "I leave my door open. You can’t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure. I prefer to work each day and just see what develops. There is no typical week in my life.”

Staffers said in the White House, former Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh implemented a system of leaving half-hour to three-hour blocks labeled “private time” or “private dinner” on Trump’s schedule. White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative Affairs Rick Dearborn has been overseeing scheduling since Walsh’s departure, according to two White House officials.

It is not unusual for presidents to have some down time carved into their schedules. President Barack Obama scheduled free time for basketball and golf. Staff members had different level of access to Obama's schedule, so lower-level aides within the West Wing would see blocks called "POTUS time" with details that only senior staff could view, one former Obama White House official said.

A former George W. Bush aide described a rigid schedule, with back-to-back appointments and little time for impromptu meetings. He kept a separate schedule for private meetings, such as talks with his minister, his doctor, his personal lawyer or family friends.

Bush’s then-chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter said Bush reserved that time for truly personal activities, not for spontaneous meetings about official business.

"It sounds like a lot of what he's saying is private is still official business of the president,” Painter, who sits on the board of the Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said of Trump.

Painter said that could keep the public from seeing who is shaping administration policy. The White House decided last week not to release visitor logs voluntarily, meaning the public won’t see who is entering the White House until five years after Trump leaves office.

White House spokeswoman Sanders said not everyone who visits Trump needs to be disclosed.

"You choose to run for president and be in the limelight, but if you are passionate about a particular issue and you want to engage the president, you shouldn't have to be in the limelight as well,” Sanders said. "It allows you to have conversations with people that you might not otherwise."

Some of those meetings go public anyway. Americans found out Trump had dinner with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and musicians Ted Nugent and Kid Rock Wednesday night because participants posted photos on Facebook. In March, news leaked that Trump had invited TMZ founder Harvey Levin to the Oval Office.

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POLITICO has reported that Trump sometimes has dinners with Cabinet members. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been a repeat guest.

"President Trump has already demonstrated that he is one of the most accessible and open presidents the country has had in recent times," said Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, a longtime friend who has met with Trump in the Oval office. "He's going out of his way to invite business leaders, Democrats, union leaders, world leaders, to meet with him either at the oval office or his home in Florida.

Aides said Trump’s schedule is beginning to become more structured now, regardless of his preferred way of doing business. As offices in the White House fill out, officials request more time with the president.

But after about 6:30 pm, when the president goes back to his residence, there's a general acceptance that his time is his own.

"They need to keep him busy or he starts calling CEO types like Steve Schwarzman," said one person who has been invited to visit Trump in the Oval Office.

"They're trying to fill his schedule up because he gets into mischief."