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“I fervently wish that the news media would take Trump seriously when it comes to his apparent scorn for voting, for fair elections and for democratic norms,” said former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan in July 2024.
“I can understand why Kamala Harris hasn’t given a sit-down interview to a major media organization or done a no-holds-barred press conference since she began her presidential campaign a few weeks ago. From a tactical or strategic point of view, there’s little reason to. After all, she’s enjoying a honeymoon phase with a lot of positive media and a nearly ecstatic reception from much of the public,” said Sullivan in August 2024.
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“Yes, the media’s Biden coverage was flawed. But its reporting on Trump was far worse,” also Sullivan, this time in 2025.
You get the point: Sullivan has been hailed for years (albeit from fellow liberals in the press) as the preeminent expert on all things journalism. But in numerous examples far beyond what you just read, she’s nothing more than a Democratic activist with a byline and awards no one cares about.
Others in the press have echoed Sullivan regarding President Donald Trump, who not only has referred to Trump as a fascist but has scorned those who haven’t followed her lead in doing so themselves. This is no longer media analysis; this is advocacy heavily marinated in hyperbole.
But take away the provocative opinions and partisanship. What do the numbers say as it pertains to both Trump’s treatment of the press?
Per a study conducted by Towson University shared with The New York Post, Trump has more than doubled his interactions with the media from the same point in his first term in 2017-2018. Overall, Trump has had almost 500 interactions with the press during the first year of his second term and 13 press conferences.
In contrast, then-President Joe Biden held exactly ZERO solo press conferences during his final year in office, a stunning number considering he was his party’s nominee for more than half the year.
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Overall, the data between Inauguration Day through Jan 20 of this year includes:
153 interviews (an increase of 58 from Trump’s first term)
327 Q&A sessions (up from 128)
Questions Trump took on Air Force One: 73 (compared to just 17 by Biden in his first year).
Meghan Hayes, who infamously was dressed up as the Easter Bunny during a Biden Easter event at the White House and literally blocked the president from speaking to the press in a moment that went viral and then some, dismissed Trump’s interactions in the usual unhinged manner.
“The American people deserve a president to give honest answers and not insults,” Hayes said. “It doesn’t matter how many times you interact with the press if it is all lies and hateful rhetoric.”
Ah, yes, because Biden never insulted the sacred press corps. Remember when he called Fox’s Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch”?
Or when he called Fox News correspondent Jacqui Henrich’s question on Putin’s aggression under his watch “stupid.”
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Or when he berated a reporter when he was asked if he planned on finishing his term amid questions about his cognitive decline:
“You’re not hurt, are you?” Biden snarked at the time. “Are you OK? Did you fall on your head or something?
And when asked about voter concerns regarding being the oldest U.S. president in history, Biden responded thusly:
“My being the oldest president, I know more world leaders than any one of you ever met in your whole goddamn life.”
Totally respectful and devoid of insults, right? And that only scratches the surface.
So why has Trump increased his media presence in his second term after already being readily accessible in his first? Because of the confidence that comes with a clear vision and the successes that have followed.
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Unlike Trump 1.0, Trump 2.0 has a clear agenda with a loyal team executing it. Year one in 2017 saw Trump target repealing and replacing Obamacare, which got shot down by one dissenting vote, the late John McCain’s. Meanwhile, the president was battling a daily news cycle almost exclusively focused on “Russian collusion.”
This term has been a steady barrage of MAGA campaign promises coming to fruition. As a result, Trump has been even more eager to speak to the press because success obviously breeds confidence and the urgency to underscore achievement.
Examples:
Drill Baby Drill, resulting in much lower gas prices, well below $3 per gallon.
Deregulation and federal employment cuts (federal employment is now at its lowest level since 1966).
A tariff war that many economists said would shrink the economy, but instead lead to the Dow Jones, S&P and Nasdaq hitting record highs, all while wages are up and the GDP is above 4%.
A peace deal that is relatively holding in Gaza.
A nuclear-free Iran thanks to Operation Midnight Hammer.
Now let’s compare and contrast: Core CPI tumbled to 2.4% per Friday’s latest report, its lowest in four years. It was above nine percent during Biden’s term at one point and averaged well above six percent during his term as a whole. Biden has never been a good public speaker to begin with, and when backed into corner on basic data and facts, he simply lied. Blatantly. And the press mostly ate it up hook, line, sinker.
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“No president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9% when I came into office. Nine percent!” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett, who conveniently didn’t remotely correct him during a May 2024 interview. And we’re not talking about semantics or nuance. The inflation rate when Biden took office was 1.4%.
As for the argument from the Left that the Trump administration is a threat to the free press and seeks to squash dissent, here’s what CNN White House Correspondent and prime time anchor Kaitlan Collins shared about an incident she had in Saudi Arabia regarding press access and who came to her defense on foreign soil.
“I asked a shouted question to President Trump, who had seen me when the U.S. press came in,” Collins said. “He didn’t answer, which is, I mean, that’s how it works. You shout questions. They either answer or they don’t — it’s their prerogative. And then the world leaders left the room.”
“The Saudi Royal Guard kind of freaked out because I dared to ask a question, and they’re not used to that there because they don’t have a free press,” she added before sharing she was barred from attending the next press event.
“Some of the younger White House staff, they are with the press, weren’t really sure what to do, and they went to Karoline and, to her credit, she said, ‘No Kaitlan’s coming in with the rest of the U.S. press,’ and we went in. And so, it didn’t become this huge issue.”
Oh.
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As for Trump’s lawsuits against media outlets, the biggest ones resolved thus far have shown they were warranted and justified. ABC News settled for $15 million after anchor George Stephanopolous repeated claimed Trump was convicted of rape (he wasn’t). And CBS News settled for the same amount after being caught red-handed editing a Kamala Harris 60 Minutes interview to make her sound coherent on foreign policy.
Of course, the aforementioned Margaret Sullivan had a big issue with the CBS settlement at the time, calling the edits “standard stuff.”
Ummm… no they weren’t. CBS released two different answers from Harris to the same exact question: One to promote the interview (which included the usual word salad from Kamala) and another that sounded at least reasonable regarding Harris’s perspective on relations with Israel amid its war with Hamas. After the edit was called out, CBS refused to release the unedited video of the interview, nor would it release the full transcript. When Trump last sat down with the same program, CBS released both the video and the transcript promptly.
So no, it wasn’t anything close to standard stuff, Margaret.
Trump is the greatest gift to legacy media ever to occupy the Oval Office. And yes, he also has a First Amendment right to fire back at “journalists” who he deems are asking irrelevant or biased questions. He has a right to legal options in the name of accountability.
This does not make him a despot or an authoritarian, but just another American exercising his constitutional rights.
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Legacy press can play the victim now. But one day they’ll look back on his eight years in office and years on the campaign trail, and at least privately say…
We never had it so good, did we?
