White House restricted access to Trump's calls with Putin and Saudi crown prince.
Those calls were among the presidential conversations that aides took remarkable steps to keep from becoming public.
The call - which the person said contained no especially sensitive national security secrets -- came as the White House was confronting the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence assessments said came at the hand of the Saudi government.
Officials said the practice began more than a year ago after embarrassing leaks revealed information about Trump's phone conversations with the leaders of Australia and Mexico.