Last fall, Donald Trump filed a $15 billion defamation suit against The New York Times. That suit is still ongoing.
On Wednesday, Trump sat down with Times reporters at the White House for a 2-hour interview, where he expounded on his worldview, conducted an off-the-record conversation with the president of Colombia, and showed off new plans to renovate the West Wing.
If that surprises you, it shouldn’t. Trump, and the rest of his administration, love to complain about the Times and other big, mainstream media outfits. They also love talking to them.
Earlier this week, for instance, key Trump advisor Stephen Miller appeared on CNN for a much-discussed interview with Jake Tapper, where he laid out a bellicose view of America’s role in the world.
A few days before that, Trump talked to The Wall Street Journal — another publication he’s currently suing — for a story about his health and fitness.
And last month Vanity Fair published a lengthy profile of Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, which involved multiple interviews with Wiles and portraits of her and other Trump officials, including Miller, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump has made mainstream media a target since he started running for president in 2015, calling reports he doesn’t like “fake news,” and labeling journalists “enemies of the people.” He’s called for a change in US libel law, so he can more easily punish journalists, and he often insists that TV networks that irk him should have their broadcast licenses revoked.
And his rhetoric and actions have ramped up in his second term, where he has banned the Associated Press from events in the Oval Office, stocked the White House briefing room with Trump-friendly outlets, and pushed out all mainstream reporters from the Pentagon.
All of that should worry anyone who cares about press freedom — or in less lofty terms, the ability of the press to accurately tell you what’s happening in the federal government.
The flip of that is quite simple: Trump is a man who grew up in a world dominated by traditional media — newspapers and television — and he still cares very much about what traditional media says about him, no matter what he says. That’s why he delights in constant press appearances in the White House, aboard Air Force One, and anywhere else reporters have cameras, microphones, and notepads.
I often think of an AP photo from last spring, shortly after he’d announced his initial, chaotic tariff plan, that shows him perusing the New York Post’s coverage of that plan in the back of his limousine. We focus a lot of attention on Trump’s ability to use Twitter, YouTube, podcasts, and other digital media to shape public perception. But he’s very much an old media guy — print, broadcast, cable.
And as long as those things still exist, Trump will want to be in them and flattered by their coverage. Which explains why he can sue them and invite them into his office at the same time.
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