After it became public information that Trump had required White House employees to sign binding NDAs that would last even after Trump's presidency ends, The Washington Post wrote that Trump was the first president to do this. According to Debra Katz, a lawyer who spoke to The Washington Post on the subject, demanding an NDA that includes a financial penalty — as Trump's is reported to have — is "an outrageous effort to limit and chill speech."

"Once again, this president believes employees owe him a personal duty of loyalty, when their duty of loyalty is to the institution," Katz told The Washington Post.

As Politico reported, Obama also didn't like leaks coming from the White House. However, he didn't use Trump's businessman's tactic of requiring NDAs in order to stop them.