White House Reporters Fear a Return of Fire and Fury It became clear to me ahead of Donald Trump’s first term how government access that we had taken for granted—like the “protective pool” covering the president on the road or the daily White House press briefing, a scene familiar to any West Wing fan—was a matter of precedent, not law. Trump’s team signaled a willingness to blow up tradition, and formal daily press briefings, for one, vanished for a spell. (Trump’s rambling briefings during the early COVID days, however, once again packed the briefing room.)
While we don’t yet know if Trump will upend media access in his second term, such as barring reporters from White House grounds, Paul Farhi reports that anxiety is sky-high inside the press corps. “I don’t think he intends to pack reporters off to Guantánamo, but who the hell knows,” says one veteran cable news journalist. “My guess is that he’ll be in attack mode from day one. Why would we think otherwise?”
Axios CEO Jim VandeHei, though, isn’t worried about whether his reporters are huddled in the West Wing while incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions—in fact, he’d prefer they weren’t. “We beg our reporters to never go to a White House press briefing,” VandeHei tells Natalie Korach, adding, “That’s a good chunk of your day lost.” VandeHei also insists the media “got way too damn emotional” covering Trump’s first term and wants Axios to approach the next “like a doctor, clinically.”
In other news: Kase Wickman finds Ivanka Trump planning to not work in the White House; Caitlin Dewey observes Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos nabbing prime inauguration seats; and Savannah Walsh explains how Trump broke the Village People. Thanks for reading.
—Michael Calderone, editor |
