Should Trump shut down the White House Press Room

[publicunofficial]

All of Trump's problems would go away if the only people let into the press room were Sean Hannity and Gavin McInness.

[EnglishPete]

The best thing he could do is shut down the press room. That way the media can hit him even harder and he wont be able to respond. Eventually all of the hits will add up and he'll go down.

Why would he not be able to respond? Press conferences are just one, rather antiquated, way of getting a message out. He can put out his press releases, video 'fireside chats' online, Q&As online taking questions submitted online, and of course public speeches. The news media can, of report on all that just as easily as they can report on what is said in a press conference and, of course, a large portion of the public will get these messages direct from social media bypassing the traditional media.

Isolation in the public eye is deadly.

If your getting hit with accusations daily...curling up in a fetal position and hiding from the world will only make it worse

Oh absolutely. The White House need aggressively and constantly get their message across to the public using several different mediums of communications. They certainly shouldn't hide away. Its just that old fashioned press conferences don't need to be one of the methods used anymore.

This is too simplistic...Twitter and Youtube won't cut it.

What you think does or does not 'cut it' is besides the point. What matters is that the White House has a variety of ways of communicating its message to the broad mass of the public both through the traditional media and through social media. Traditional press conferences are simply no longer necessary to achieve this.

They were invented when the only form of electronic communications were the telegraph and the telephone and a press conference was simply the most efficient way of communicating a significant amount of information to multiple newspapers' journalists at the same time (and through them the public at large). I know they've become something of a hallowed tradition but they wouldn't be invented today if we didn't have them, there are now other and better ways of communicating with the public.

[EnglishPete]

The best thing he could do is shut down the press room. That way the media can hit him even harder and he wont be able to respond. Eventually all of the hits will add up and he'll go down.

Why would he not be able to respond? Press conferences are just one, rather antiquated, way of getting a message out. He can put out his press releases, video 'fireside chats' online, Q&As online taking questions submitted online, and of course public speeches. The news media can, of report on all that just as easily as they can report on what is said in a press conference and, of course, a large portion of the public will get these messages direct from social media bypassing the traditional media.

Isolation in the public eye is deadly.

If your getting hit with accusations daily...curling up in a fetal position and hiding from the world will only make it worse

Oh absolutely. The White House need aggressively and constantly get their message across to the public using several different mediums of communications. They certainly shouldn't hide away. Its just that old fashioned press conferences don't need to be one of the methods used anymore.

This is too simplistic...Twitter and Youtube won't cut it.

What you think does or does not 'cut it' is besides the point. What matters is that the White House has a variety of ways of communicating its message to the broad mass of the public both through the traditional media and through social media. Traditional press conferences are simply no longer necessary to achieve this.

They were invented when the only form of electronic communications were the telegraph and the telephone and a press conference was simply the most efficient way of communicating a significant amount of information to multiple newspapers' journalists at the same time (and through them the public at large). I know they've become something of a hallowed tradition but they wouldn't be invented today if we didn't have them, there are now other and better ways of communicating with the public.

The problem is that the majority of Trump voters are older people who don't Twitter or Youtube. They still watch the TV news the old fashioned way. If Trump abdicates from a presence on the television news then all you'll get is swarms of bad news with no reply. This happened to Jimmy Carter who hid 'behind a dictionary' from the press.

Trump expanding on the internet is a waste of time since he will never sway younger voters. Even most middle-age voters are getting tired of sh.it

A whole load of oversimplifications there. Trump's vote was heavier in the older demographics (53% of over 50s and of of over 65s) compared to younger demographics (35% of 18-24 year olds) but he still got a very substantial amount of the younger age brackets.

Secondly a huge number of the older age brackets do use social media, not so much Twitter (which may have a limited shelf life in the social media market anyway) but certainly Facebook. As for those old people who don't use social media, guess what, they don't read newspapers either. Those are the people who just watch TV because that's what they've always done. So absolutely the WH has to be in close communication with journalists from the Network TV shows but again there's no reason why the Press conference model would be the best or most efficient way of doing that.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I think the question we should be asking is why do Trump supporters like Pete on the one hand claim to love democracy but on the other think Trump should be not held in check by the press or courts?

[EnglishPete]

I think the question we should be askibg is why do Trump supporters like Pere on the one hand claim to love democracy but on the other think Trump should be not held in check by the press or courts?

Who elected the traditional media (or the courts for that matter)?

[Hindsight was 2020]

I think the question we should be askibg is why do Trump supporters like Pere on the one hand claim to love democracy but on the other think Trump should be not held in check by the press or courts?

Who elected the traditional media (or the courts for that matter)?

Who elected Trump cause it sure wasn't the majority

[EnglishPete]

As for those old people who don't use social media, guess what, they don't read newspapers either.

lol

Most people don't read print newspapers anymore. Do you think that many older Trump voters are reading the newspapers? No, they're watching TV, just like they've always done. Some will pay closer attention buying a newspaper but they're the ones also likely to be online as well.

[The_Doctor]

Trump needs the neoconservatives to give him cover on Russia. He's exposed on the Russian scandal so much because he a) actually acts friendly towards Russia b) the neoconservatives deserted him in 2016, denying him an important flank that could cover him and protect him from charges of being too soft on America's geopolitical enemies.

In short, the hawks won't protect him because he flipped the finger to the hawks in 2016 and continues to do so in 2017. They protected W from Iraq in 2003 all the way to 2006 and W used them for cover. Ditto H.W. and RR. (Well, actually, in RR's case, he was such a big hawk and so legendarily anti-Communist he made his own cover just by being who he was).  

I've increasingly come to the belief Trump's vulnerability has nothing to do with his media strategy. It's because the GOP coalition is increasingly weak and disunited, thus preventing Trump from employing the full protection of a party behind him to protect him. (His incompetence here also plays a role, but I'm focusing on the big thing).

The neoconservatives abandoning him in 2016 and refusing to come to his defense now (their main focus is an antagonism towards Russia, in fact) may be a big reason why he gets pummeled nonstop on the issue and doesn't have the air cover he would normally enjoy as President.

Trump doesn't need a better media strategy entirely. He needs surrogates who have credibility on the Russia issue and isn't employed by the White House to go out and defend him. The problem is, he's alienated the traditional (neoconservative Reagan-Bush) foreign policy establishment, so every time we hear a Russia story, the NRO refuses to give him cover, John Podheretz of the Weekly Standard bashes him on Twitter, and people like me who are staunchly neoconservative won't raise a finger to defend him. So 60-70% of the country now assumes he's weak on America's interests overseas and the story line forms that he's more friendly to Russia than Ameica.

So, the GOP circular firing squad / civil war continues apace and Trump gets beaten up a little more each time.

(NB: This is why you exhibit a hawkish line on someone before you ease up on them. You need credibility first).

[The_Doctor]

Take this additional paragraph in full with the top above.

Trump is a man with a stump of a party working with him and he has, by his own actions, deprived himself of the full gamut of the conservative firewall and has guaranteed for the duration of his presidency that the Right will never side with him fully while the Left will wage all out war on him.

This is why the Russia story keeps burning through his wall bit by bit. Reagan had the entire neoconservative estabishment during Iran-Contra and Bush, as I said, had it for 2000-2006.

It's a little tricky to say because the neoconservative wing is so damaged but is still powerful enough as a GOP bulwark to give him some cover. But without them, Trump is pretty vulnerable to charges he's not tough enough on America's enemies.

The isolationist populists are not enough to save his bacon. They don't compose enough of the electorate to give him enough firepower and defense on his Russia - centered actions and behavior. They don't even compose enough of the GOP establishment that is secretly waging war on him. I would bet dollar to donuts that half of the attacks slung at him, if not a full 3/4 are coming from Republican conservatives waging war through leaks.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Is it possible that Trump's current antagonism towards Germany is being driven by some combination of his dislike for the neocons, and his rage at the investigation into his ties to Russia? That he's burning bridges with Germany out of spite?

He can't openly get chummy with Russia at this point without risking his whole administration collapsing. His nannies know that and have probably beaten that into him for a while. But he can do his best to break everything we'd built with Germany (who doesn't get along with Russia).


Or maybe he's just following marching orders from the Kremlin to get that 19% of Rosneft.

[skoods]

Before heading off on his foreign trip President Drumpf suggested he was thinking about shutting down the Daily Press Briefings at the White House, which often generate far more heat than light, and instead doing press conferences himself a couple of times a month (presumably not in that rather shabby looking room in the West Wing).

Whilst he has been away the daily press briefings have been paused, as is usual. I don't think the administration has suffered at all from them being paused. Newt Gingrich has suggested closing down the White House press room and instead doing online briefings direct to the American people. His reasoning is that many of these publications have become blatant partisan and dishonest propagandists hostile to the Drumpf administration and why would Drumpf want to grant them a stamp of legitimacy by inviting them in to the building.

On the latter point I think Gingrich is right. Of course Drumpf still needs to give attention to Network TV news that is still massively influential and he's been giving them attention with periodic interviews (like the one he did recently with Lester Holt). However as far as cable news and newspapers go fewer and fewer people watch/read them. If the behave like hostile partisan propaganda outlets why give them legitimacy by treating them and responding to them as anything more. I'm sure tens of millions of Drumpf voters wouldn't even be sure that the Washington Post and New York Times were still in print if the White House didn't keep arguing with them and responding to them like they were legitimate publications to be taken seriously.

Drumpf should close down the Press Room. He should keep the press office to issue press releases and organise occasional press conferences as well as publishing video reports directly online themselves. But the press room and daily press briefings serve no good purpose and should go.

Little wittle Donald the Coward too scurred to face the big bad pwess?

Sack up Rethugs.

[The_Doctor]

Is it possible that Trump's current antagonism towards Germany is being driven by some combination of his dislike for the neocons, and his rage at the investigation into his ties to Russia? That he's burning bridges with Germany out of spite?

The only reason we would be frosty with Germany is if our line on Russia is not aligned with Western Europe. Plain and simple. Germany has a hard line on Russia and so does France. If the President was Rubio, West Europe and the United States would be in alignment against Russia. The fact that Trump is more Russia friendly (for whatever reason) is causing a second Europea - United States split (the first being Iraq).

The neoconservatives would probably be aligned with Merkel and Macron at this point. Trump isn't but a sizable contingent of the GOP hawks are.

What's unclear is how Trump's foreign policy serves the geopolitical hegemony of the United States and West Europe (which operate, usually, in tandem). By being soft on Russia, which is aggressively attacking our institutions, we are weakening our hand to act globally and allowing more divided societies which in turn make it harder for us to stand up to Russia and other aggressors. (Which is of course what Putin wants!)