How much does Trump still need the press?

Dec 23, 2024

POLITICO'S West Wing Playbook: Transition of Power

By Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan, Lisa Kashinsky, Megan Messerly and Ben Johansen

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off for the holidays starting this Wednesday (Merry Christmas!) but back in your inboxes on Thursday, Jan. 2.

For years, DONALD TRUMP used television and tabloids to build his personal brand. He leveraged Twitter to propel his run to the White House and, for his first four years in office, to maintain the country’s attention. But he won a second term by taking his message straight to podcasts and online influencers — and for much of his transition, he’s simply iced the press out.

Last week showed that for all the ways that Trump’s approach to the media has evolved, some of the old rules still apply.

With Washington suddenly up in arms over the sudden prospect of a government shutdown, the president-elect called four journalists, all from major news networks. Speaking to reporters from NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News — on the record — in a single morning would not have been considered unusual given Trump’s obsessive focus on media coverage that characterized his first term.

The Thursday talk-a-thon showed that, while an emboldened Trump may be more determined than ever to punish more independent members of the press in this second term, he still needs the mainstream media, at least when he’s under pressure.

“He wants to impose his will, and the election has led some in the media to recognize that their being so anti-Trump is hurting them more than it is him,” said one person in the president-elect’s orbit who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “But there are going to be times where he decides he needs to get a message out and that the traditional press offer a good way to do that.”

The spate of TV interviews was something of an aberration for this transition, during which the president-elect has mostly remained in the sunny seclusion of his Palm Beach club, largely ignoring the rotating cast of reporters flying in to cover him. The sudden outreach was driven by Trump’s need to make clear that he, not ELON MUSK, was the one who blew up a spending compromise.

Eight years ago, Trump paraded Cabinet hopefuls before a pool of press gathered outside his home. This time around, his staff have yet to sanction an official transition press pool, leaving the reporters taking part in an unofficial version organized by the White House Correspondents’ Association with little to do or report after arriving in West Palm Beach.

The organization is treading lightly, continuing quiet negotiations with Trump’s team and avoiding public criticism, according to three people familiar with the discussions. That’s a shift from 2016, when its then-president, JEFF MASON of Reuters, blasted the president-elect for ditching the protective pool and taking MITT ROMNEY, then a contender to be secretary of State, to dinner.

“It is unacceptable for the next president of the United States to travel without a regular pool to record his movements and inform the public about his whereabouts,” Mason said in a statement at the time.

Back then, Trump mostly adhered to the agreement, hammered out between WHCA and a communications team overseen by former RNC officials. But since winning the presidency for the second time, Trump and a team of dyed-in-the-wool loyalists haven’t given an inch to the press corps. Beyond the matter of not agreeing to the long-standing protocol and allowing a small pool of reporters to shadow the president and president-elect at all times, some of Trump’s aides have pushed to go further, suggesting, among other things, a reorganization of the briefing room seating chart to benefit more Trump-friendly correspondents, according to two people familiar with internal conversations.

“There are a lot of ‘normies’ on the press team who will deal with us, but there are also a few folks who see everything as a fight,” said one veteran Trump reporter who was granted anonymity to describe their interactions with the transition. “And you don’t always know which side is in charge.”

Unlike eight years ago, there are scant signs of mainstream media outlets girding for battle, no clear audience of determined resistance to capitalize on.

“It feels like the people who were up in arms about Trump eight years ago are just worn out,” said one veteran White House reporter who was granted anonymity to describe the fatigue inside their newsroom. “Stories that have new, vivid details that we can work all day long to get aren’t landing like they used to. Everyone is used to the Trump chaos after almost a decade of this, and a lot of people seem to be deciding they’re just not going to let the news dominate their day-to-day lives.”

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POTUS PUZZLER

Which president’s son snuck a Christmas tree into the White House?

(Answer at bottom.)

Pro Exclusive

Possible Trump OSHA pick thwarted heat enforcement, via our ARIEL WITTENBERG

These California farmers went for Trump. Now he could deport half their workers, via our CAMILLE VON KAENEL

Trump’s Treasury pick urged to tap historic Gold Act powers to create U.S. bitcoin reserve, via our IZABELLA KAMINSKA

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Heads up, we're all transition all the time over on our live blog: Inside Congress Live: Transition of Power. Bookmark politico.com/transition to keep up with us.

THE BUREAUCRATS

GETTING THAT TRUMP TREATMENT: After the House of Representatives barely passed a government spending bill on Friday, Speaker MIKE JOHNSON proclaimed to reporters that Trump was “certainly happy about this outcome.”

But as our RACHAEL BADE writes this morning, the president-elect is not only unhappy with the deal, he’s unhappy with Johnson, too.

Trump is upset he didn’t get the debt ceiling hike he wanted, felt blindsided by the agreement Johnson initially struck with Democrats, and in the end, was unimpressed with the entire chaotic process — one that he and Musk largely initiated. Now, the incoming president is questioning whether Johnson is capable of managing an even thinner majority next year.

“In the past couple of weeks, we’ve questioned whether [Johnson has] been an honest broker,” said one Trump insider. “I don’t see how Johnson survives,” another said.

IN CASE YOU WERE BUSY WATCHING JAYDEN DANIELS TORCH THE BIRDS: On Sunday, Trump announced additional roles in his administration, including key tech and national security posts.

MICHAEL KRATSIOS will advise “AI and Crypto Czar” DAVID SACKS as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He previously served in Trump’s first administration as his chief technology officer.
LYNNE PARKER will advise Kratsios as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, which Sacks will chair.
SRIRAM KRISHNAN was tapped as OSTP’s senior policy adviser for AI.
SCOTT KUPOR, a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz — where Krishnan also works — will be the director of the Office of Personnel Management.
ANDREW PEEK, a top aide for incoming national security adviser Rep. MIKE WALTZ (R-Fla.), is slated to be the senior director for Europe and Eurasia at the National Security Council.

Agenda Setting

THE THREE-WEEK SPRINT: President JOE BIDEN is commuting the sentences of nearly every prisoner on the federal government’s death row, a decision likely to hinder Trump’s ability to rapidly resume federal executions, our ADAM CANCRYN reports.

Biden will commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men condemned to death, instead sentencing them to imprisonment for life without possibility of parole. He said this was consistent with his administration’s moratorium on executions (though it’s an issue he has shifted on throughout his career).

“Make no mistake: I condemn these murders, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in a statement on Monday. “But guided by my conscience and my experience … I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

The flurry of commutations, the president added, was also spurred by Trump’s fervent support for capital punishment and he could not allow the incoming administration to restart the executions he aimed to prevent during his time in office.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! The Biden administration is warning that Pakistan is developing a long-ranged ballistic missile that could eventually provide nuclear-armed Islamabad with a weapon capable of striking the U.S., WSJ’s MICHAEL R. GORDON reports. The administration disclosed the intelligence about the country’s secret missile activities and imposed sanctions against a state-owned entity involved in the work after efforts to press its concerns fell short.

Last week, deputy national security adviser JON FINER said it’s hard to see Pakistan’s actions as “anything other than an emerging threat to the United States.”

What We're Reading

"We Got Something Wrong”: California Prepares to Resist, But Differently (POLITICO’s David Siders)

Sending Troops to Help Russia Was North Korea’s Idea, U.S. Officials Say (NYT’s Julian E. Barnes and Michael Schwirtz)

Ethics report alleges Gaetz paid 17-year-old for sex (POLITICO’s Olivia Beavers)

Rickey Henderson’s death is the true end of baseball in Oakland (The Mercury News’ Dieter Kurtenbach)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

Christmas trees weren’t quite fashionable during TEDDY ROOSEVELT’s administration. But his son, ARCHIE, was determined. He found a small tree outside, dragged it into his room when no one was watching and decorated it with candles.

“It was quite dangerous, considering the candles,” said STEWART McLAURIN, president of the White House Historical Association. Eventually, the tree was found and it began a new tradition of having a Christmas tree in the White House, McLaurin noted.

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Jennifer Haberkorn and Rishika Dugyala

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