Last week, Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf published his book, Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy. The book has been praised by two such members of that movement, Steve Bannon and John Fredericks, both of whom had Arnsdorf on their shows and recommended the book to their audiences. The Trump campaign, however, has had a different response to the book, specifically its title; prior to publication, they asked Arnsdorf to change it, and when he didn’t, they retaliated by cutting off his access, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Since February, Arnsdorf has not been permitted to enter campaign events as credentialed media. Other reporters have seen him working from the public section, I’m told.
(Arnsdorf declined to comment and referred Vanity Fair to a Post spokesperson, who said the paper “will continue to fairly, accurately and independently report on the presidential campaign, including candidates’ rallies and other events.”)
In recent weeks, the campaign has taken similar punitive measures against other reporters, according to multiple sources familiar with the moves. An Axios reporter had their credentials approved for an event and then revoked the same day, following the publication of a story about the Trump-led Republican National Committee’s struggles in swing states. (An Axios spokesperson declined to comment.) At least one other Post reporter was temporarily denied press credentials to multiple events after accurately reporting on Trump’s public statements. Most recently, Brian Stelter, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, was denied press access to Trump’s rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.
Reporters who’ve been iced out in recent weeks have not been banned outright from events; they can still go as a member of the public, but that requires getting to rallies much earlier, which could be a deal breaker for some journalists given their busy schedules. “It’s harder for people to accuse them of shutting out reporters because it’s pockets of people, and it’s typically temporary,” said one political reporter. And it’s not just events, they added. “If they’re pissed off about a story, they won’t talk to you for a week or two.” I spoke with a number of reporters for this story who declined to discuss the dynamic with the campaign out of a fear of losing access.
The news follows the campaign’s previously reported clash with NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard in January, when they refused to let Hillyard—the designated pool reporter—travel with Trump to New Hampshire campaign stops. The restriction was apparently due to questions that Hillyard asked Representative Elise Stefanik about the E. Jean Carroll case, in which Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Hillyard also had an incident with the Trump operation last spring, aboard Trump’s plane. As I reported at the time, a line of questioning from Hillyard related to the Manhattan DA’s case against Trump irritated the former president, prompting him to chuck Hillyard’s phones to the side and tell his aides, “Get him out of here.”
During the 2016 election, the Trump campaign would deny entire news organizations, from the Post to BuzzFeed News to HuffPost, press credentials for events, so often that The New York Times referred to Trump as “punisher in chief.” This time around, Trump’s 2024 team—which has been described as more professional and “disciplined” than those of his previous runs—seems to be taking a different tack toward the press. “It’s not like the White House and it’s not like previous Trump campaigns,” a second political reporter told me. “It’s much more picky-choosy; much more of a controlled environment over who has access.”
The Trump campaign’s engagement with the press has even earned it praise. Some reporters have said they have in certain ways been easier to deal with than Joe Biden’s campaign, according to The New Yorker’s Clare Malone, who recently wrote a piece about Trump spokesman Steven Cheung headlined, “The Face of Donald Trump’s Deceptively Savvy Media Strategy.”
“Nobody has been denied any access to our events,” Cheung said in a statement to Vanity Fair. “If reporters want to cover our events but are unable to secure a coveted press badge, they are more than welcome to apply for general admission tickets in order to experience our events. Throughout this campaign, we have been the most press-friendly and accessible [campaign] in modern history. We have flown reporters on Trump Force One, let them live stream from inside our motorcades, and given access that has never been granted during legal days. We don’t let petty differences get in the way of using the media to get our message out.”
“However,” he continued, “there have been certain reporters who have engaged in unethical conduct or breached basic journalistic standards of sharing privileged information to other campaigns and individuals.” Cheung did not specify which reporters he’s referring to, though said that “unfortunately for those people, they can never be trusted again and will never be given the benefit of the doubt on this campaign or when we return to the White House.” (None of the reporters cited in this piece have, to Vanity Fair’s knowledge, engaged in any unethical or otherwise problematic behavior.)
Reporters I spoke to didn’t deny that Trump’s 2024 team is a better, more sophisticated operation at the top level than eight years ago. (“Terrifyingly competent,” is how my colleague Gabriel Sherman recently put it.) But reporters are still unnerved by the retaliatory behavior over stories the campaign doesn’t like, and what it might mean for covering this operation going forward. “This is the calm before the storm. Once there’s a press plane with 30 to 40 reporters flying around all the time, that’ll be when they’ll really have to deal with it,” the first political reporter told me. “Negative stories will be coming thick and fast and they haven’t had to deal with this since 2016; in 2020 they just had the White House pool. It’s only gonna get worse, I think.”
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