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The EO is directed at agencies and individuals that are subordinate to the President. The President can follow the procedures outlined in the EO...if he wants to...but he doesn't have to. And THAT is what Trump has consistently said. Furthermore, court rulings support what he says.
Trump has never said that he is bound by the EO.
According to Trump's lawyers' filing, the EO applies to the president also because it says
the Executive Order grants authority to declassify information to either the official who originally classified the information or that individual’s supervisors—necessarily including the President. § 3.1(b)(1), (3)
Got it now?
What Trump and his lawyers try to argue isa that the EO wording supports Trump's claim of his broad declassification authority because Obama's EO says that the President has an "original classification authority" and is granted authority (by Obama's EO) to declassify information.
Of course, Trump's lawyers leave out other parts of the same Obama's EO which was (according to their words) "controlling" during Trump's term. And according to those parts, Trump just could not declassify information with the purpose of removing it from the agency as he was leaving his office!
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