Day 351: Trump’s Latest Bizarre Behavior: Recording Video For Press Briefing From Down the Hall
January 2018 has been odd at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., even by Donald Trump’s standards. There are more strange and unhinged tweets from Trump, now increasing in frequency, and a louder barrage of noise from staffers at the White House that Trump is mentally unfit for the presidency.
Thursday’s antics will do little to quell the latter notion.
Trump, who is in the White House this week, recorded a 107-second video to be played at the daily press briefing. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders introduced the video as a “message from a special guest” and when it concluded actually and sycophantly said to the screen, “Thank you, Mr. President.”
The message, in which Trump appeared to be reading off a teleprompter, did nothing other than tout the tax bill signed into law last month. Trump, if he really wanted to flex his muscles about the bill, could have just as easily shown up to the briefing room, something his predecessors did with some regularity. The room is mere feet down the hall from the Oval Office.
Barack Obama averaged a solo news conference about every six weeks. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton averaged one every eight weeks. George H.W. Bush had one every two and a half weeks. Ronald Reagan, meanwhile, attended just nine total in his final seven years in office. One reason for the lack of appearances could be that Reagan suffered from Alzheimer’s while in office, which one of his sons believes occurred.
Trump, meanwhile, has had just one solo press conference while in office, even eschewing the traditional end-of-the-year meeting. His lone appearance came way back in February. It was a disaster in every sense of the word, as we wrote at the time.
Donald Trump’s press conference yesterday — the one where he berated the media; claimed he gets to be the arbiter of what is and isn’t fake news; paradoxically declared that intelligence leaks are real but the news reporting them is fake; asked a black reporter if members of the Congressional Black Caucus were friends of hers; bragged about his electoral college victory; lied about the size of that victory; stammered an absurd explanation when called out on that lie; assessed worthiness of reporters’ questions by their ratings; praised Putin’s intelligence for aggressive military maneuvers near the U.S. military; opined that anti-Semitism done in his name is actually being done by his opponents in an attempt to fool the media; screamed that drugs are cheaper than candy; explained, unexplained and reexplained who, when and how people from his staff did or did not speak to Russian operatives; praised Mike Flynn after proclaiming Flynn lied to Mike Pence; and said “Russia is fake news” — was an unprecedented, unmitigated, unhinged disaster.
Trump’s team has done everything to hide him from the press since. They even tried to prevent the press from watching him sign the tax bill that he’s boasting about in the prerecorded video. Trump aides frequently shuffle him along and try to act as a buffer between him and the press. Most were stunned when they learned — only after it was in print — that Trump gave a calamitous, on-the-record interview to The New York Times while on vacation last week.
Trump’s video was, at best, an odd attempt to spin a narrative while cowering from the press; at worst, it was a sign of something far more dangerous to the nation. Either way, his appearance had a Wizard of Oz vibe, and will only lead to more questions regarding who’s behind the curtain.
351 days in, 1111 to go
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