The press conference held by Trump on Thursday has kept the news cycle spinning for several days and it’s still going. I have a confession to make here. I watch virtually no live speech or press conference events although I’ve caught some chance segments on radio. This has included all presidents as far back as I can remember and that’s quite a few; more on that in a moment. On Wednesday, I happened to see that Trump was being streamed live onto Facebook so I made an instantaneous decision to temporarily suspend my non-viewing habit. It lasted about 40 seconds. Here’s what happened:
In the first 20 seconds, Trump was speaking a sentence coherently and in my surprise, I said to myself, “I agree with this guy”! In the next 20 seconds, he repeated the same thought he had just made in the first twenty seconds – twice – using incomplete sentences! I turned it off. If I was paid to do it, maybe I could listen to Trump, but not otherwise. This is how reporters earn their keep.
When it comes to any manner of speechifying, I wait for the transcript and the first couple waves of press observation. When it comes to any presidential assertions, it is important to hear a whole speech in the context of prior words and actions. Quite frankly, very few of us have time to do that properly. That’s why there is a press to do that for what that’s worth. Unlike Trump, I believe the press is important, even a much flawed press. Most important, what the president, any president does, is far more important than what he/she says. The over-arching equation goes both ways. I don’t give much weight to blow hard politicians on the spot nor to gotcha journalism – it cuts both ways.
So what of the press conference itself? Based on a plethora of first hand observations, it was more classic Trump. ‘Facts’ that are probably not facts but really not all that important either and yet, the sense that he is still doing what his base elected him to do which includes bypassing and berating the media. Calmer more analytical heads though are noting that in spite of the animus between Trump and the press, the level of engagement is actually more then they got with Obama for most of his presidency. I’m just glad I didn’t have to listen to the whole thing directly.
