This article was first published in the On the Hill newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox on Friday mornings here.
If you’ve been on the political side of social media lately, you’ve likely run into the new phenomenon over the last few months of reporters directly calling President Donald Trump for exclusive conversations.
It really started heating up with U.S. military operations in Iran as the president began taking calls from reporters to discuss strategy and answer questions. If you go on X and search for keywords like “phone with Trump” or “talked with the president,” you’ll find a bunch of posts from reporters who just simply called him up to ask a question or two.
It’s an unprecedented level of access we haven’t really seen before. And the thing is, people don’t realize just how common it is in today’s press corps.
One reporter I talked to, who I’ve kept confidential to ensure I don’t threaten anyone’s access, told me it was a “weird feeling” to have such direct access to the most powerful office in the world.
“In past administrations, there are all of these layers you would have to go through to speak one-on-one with the president outside of a press gaggle or being called on in the briefing room,” they told me. “But I find it helpful for my coverage because you can just call him up and break news immediately instead of having to go through a comms shop that works to control messaging.”
The close access got me wondering just how strange, or not strange, this level of accessibility is compared to other presidents in the past. For the most part, we are closer to the president than ever before — and a large part of that is due to social media and new technologies that haven’t been available before.
“Presidents, up until fairly recently, didn’t have 24/7 ability to communicate with the media in that way where they can just pick up the phone and call them. So that’s one huge difference, just in technology,” Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Virginia specializing in presidential studies, told me in an interview. “But the other main difference between any president who knew people in the media or talked to people or had press conferences is that most presidents do not want to be overexposed in the media.”
The closest president we can compare this level of access to is President John F. Kennedy, according to Perry, who had a good rapport with the press and had a close friendship with Ben Bradlee, editor of The Washington Post and the president’s former neighbor. But even then, Kennedy didn’t have a cellphone or social media accounts that allowed him to directly interact with reporters or his supporters — something that Trump has enjoyed during both terms.
And in a way, it’s allowed Trump to avoid the barriers other presidents have in terms of press secretaries and a comms shop working overtime to keep him on message.
“He is the media. That’s the big difference is that presidents wanted to foster friendships with the media so that they could have good press — Donald Trump is his own press secretary,” Perry said. “He doesn’t need to be friends with the media. He is the media.”
Now, depending on how you view that, it could be a good or bad thing. Reporters I’ve talked to say it’s helped shape their coverage and it allows them to get exclusive interviews. But other reporters I know have raised the question: Just because you can, should you?
“The founders in writing the First Amendment … intended for the press to be between the people and the government to tell the people what the government was doing, to inform the people and give the honest answer to what the government was doing,” Perry said. “If everybody has access to the president, who’s going to be the person or who are going to be the people who are really giving us the real story that’s not in any way tainted by this special relationship with the president?”
On the one hand, you do have access to the unfiltered thoughts of Trump and what he is thinking, feeling, and planning at any moment. But there also comes the risk of not upholding the watchdog role because of the risk of losing access to the president if you anger him.
“You could make the argument that, well, this is great. He talks to them directly. There is no filter of a press secretary,” Perry said. “The negative is, are you going to remain unbiased if you are not wanting to put this person off?”
Stories Driving the Week
- Ceasefire: The ceasefire between Iran, Israel and the United States has remained fragile, and Trump said U.S. military will remain on standby in the region. Follow the Deseret News’ live coverage.
- Mo’ Money: Familiar faces dominated campaign fundraising in Utah’s four unfamiliar congressional districts at the beginning of an unprecedented election year. Incumbents, or former incumbents, outpaced their primary challengers who are seeking to pull Beehive State politics closer to the ideological poles.
- Foreign priorities: As conflicts rise across the world, Utah Sen. John Curtis is urging his colleagues to focus their attention on what he considers to be the greatest threat to the global economy: China’s stated desire to eventually annex Taiwan.
Republicans head to the White House as they plot out second megabill
A pair of Republican senators went to the White House on Friday to meet with President Donald Trump and plot a path forward on what to include in the party’s second megabill.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., joined Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in the discussion. Graham will lead the Senate’s reconciliation efforts through his position on the Budget Committee as the second package is expected to focus on homeland security funding that has long been frozen due to Democratic opposition.
The meeting lasted about an hour, with the president emerging to say the package is “ON TRACK” and that Republicans are “moving FAST and FOCUSED.”
Barrasso also left the conversation calling it “productive.”
Barrasso said the second package will be drafted “in a targeted way” to include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Initial plans to attach supplemental funding for military operations in Iran do not seem to be part of the current plan, although nothing has been finalized.
“We’re moving ahead in spite of incredible obstruction by the Democrats (by) funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border control with Republican votes alone, using reconciliation,” Barrasso told a group of us on Thursday.
The plan comes as some conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus have suggested funding the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security through the reconciliation process, which would include millions of more dollars to fund agencies such as TSA and FEMA — offices that have been caught in the political crosshairs over the last few months.
Barrasso didn’t exactly say if that’s something he and Graham will push for at the White House — but he didn’t necessarily close the door either.
“We’re going to work together with the House,” he said. “We need to do it through the House and through the Senate, get it to the White House, and I’ll be discussing those things with the president tomorrow.”
But Barrasso again emphasized keeping the package narrow — which he says will give its best chance of success to pass by the June 1 deadline given by Trump. That deadline was reiterated by both the president and the pair of senators after the meeting.
Quick Hits
From the Hill: Republicans have harder path to winning House majority than Democrats. … Pam Bondi threatened with contempt charges after DOJ says she won’t testify to Congress. … Republicans invest millions in 8 states to defend Senate majority.
From the White House: The race on Wall Street to manage newly created Trump Accounts. … Trump’s acting AG embraces any outcome — even being replaced. … Melania Trump denies connection to Epstein crimes, wants hearings for victims.
From the courts: Former NBA star John Stockton makes a last appeal to the Supreme Court. … Arizona officials push back against Trump’s mail-in voting reform. … Steve Bannon’s criminal conviction likely to be dismissed, thanks to Supreme Court.