Day 393: Donald Trump’s Only Press Conference Was One Year Ago
In 393 days at the helm, Donald Trump has only held one full and open press conference. It was exactly a year ago.
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.
But Trump’s hesitance or cowardice to get back in front of the full press corps and answer questions underscores just how unprepared he is and how fearful his staff is in opening him up to difficult questions on a big stage.
It’s not just press conferences either: Trump refused to do a pre-Super Bowl interview, likely because the game was on NBC and they would have asked the questions and aired the exchange.
A full year is the longest a president has gone without a solo press conference since at least Lyndon B. Johnson. In rare moments where the press can get questions to Trump, such as informal gaggles or joint press conferences with world leaders where Trump gets asked two questions, he seeks out reporters he knows won’t ask him tough questions.
Trump frequently uses the two-and-two format to allow questions from friendlier outlets. His tendency to grant the first question to Fox News’ John Roberts is a running joke in the press corps: During a September 2017 question-and-answer session alongside the emir of Kuwait, Trump withdrew a question from Roberts by saying, “Actually, we’ll go to somebody else this time, John. You’ve been doing enough.”
Trump’s desire to avoid any type of real repartee with the press was on full display a month ago when he bizarrely pre-recorded a two minute video from down the hall to be played at the daily press briefing. It’s not like Trump was unavailable to appear, either: he was in the White House the whole week.
And, as usual, there’s a Trump tweet for everything.
393 days in, 1069 to go
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