I think the context of "personal recordings" is missing from your logic. Because otherwise the argument is in direct contradiction to the law. The law markjo quoted is pretty clear cut and not open to alot of interpetation.
It says that the court did provide context to what is meant by the law. That is the purpose of the court, to interpret the law. In this case they said whatever the president took was a personal record, and anything left was a presidential record:
https://archive.is/20230613213659/https://www.wsj.com/articles/clintons-sock-drawer-and-trumps-indictment-documents-pra-personal-files-13986b28#selection-281.33-281.322Although he didn’t keep records in his sock drawer, he gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, documents and other materials in cardboard boxes. Then Mr. Trump, like Mr. Clinton, took those boxes with him when he left office. As of noon on Jan. 20, 2021, whatever remained at the White House was presidential records. Whatever was taken by Mr. Trump wasn’t. That was the position of the Justice Department in 2010 and the ruling by Judge Jackson in 2012.
The President has complete authority over personal vs. presidential records:
Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed: “Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office,” she held, “it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal records.”
How is former president Trump holding on to national defense secrets in the public interest or fit any reasonable definition of a "responsible decision for the country"? National defense secrets are neither personal nor presidential records. They are the property of the agency that created those documents and should have been returned to the respective agency.
They are property of the President to do with as he pleases, as all classification power originates from the president and all executive branches exist at the whim of the President. The executive branches are not above the President, it is the opposite way around. They are the President's records. Trump was President when he did it and decided where they should be located. Mar-a-Lago was obviously security hardened, and has been staffed with Secret Service agents with guns in the time the papers were located there. The photographed classified papers were in the basement, which the SCIF was also in, and which received the most security hardening.
The public has an interest in the papers being with the President in this case so he can go through them and separate out the records for inclusion in the Presidential library.
Even if this was a situation where the President decided to hand them over to the media directly, the public still has a public interest in it since we elected the President to do what is best for the country, which includes disclosure and honesty. The rantings of "Noooo National Secret" seem to ignore that the President is above all the executive branches, is the origin of classification authority, and he is the one who made the secret. The President can make decisions and policies that last for years after his tenure, and can obviously make a decision on what should happen to his papers after he leaves office.