There are many different ways the White House press corps interacts with President Donald J. Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Questioning the President
No president has given the press more access or opportunities to engage with him than Trump. One would think that this would endear him to the press, but it literally has no effect on their hostility toward him, which is driven by class consciousness.
For better or worse, Trump represents working Americans, and not the college-educated, so the reporters, who came from all the best families and went to all the best schools, recognize that he is a threat to the ongoing societal structures that have been in place for decades.
In every culture, the well-off always call the man representing their employees a dictator.
You can hear the contempt in every question that begins: “Do you really think it’s appropriate..?”
Fortunately for Trump, his media skills are highly developed, to the point that the constant confrontations always come off as unfair — to the reporter.
One of the most common ways to question the president is when he departs or arrives via Marine One on the South Lawn. More often than not, Trump will not take questions when he arrives back home after a long day, but almost always he will take questions when he is departing.
Roughly an hour to 30 minutes before the president walks by, the reporters speed-walk — no running — from their holding pen, also known as the Palm Room, and line up along a chain strung through stanchions on the grass.
Whether he comes out from the door below the South Portico or from the Oval Office door past the Rose Garden, Trump enjoys working the line. Going back to the 2016 campaign, I saw one reporter ask Trump three different questions as he tracked Trump’s progress down the rope line — after every other rival for the GOP presidential nomination had left.
Recently, at a departure, I asked the president which was more broken, OPEC or NATO. He brushed off the question about OPEC, saying he had little to do with it, but he gave a long answer about his frustrations with NATO, especially during the Third Gulf War.
It was captured by my network and the White House pool feed, and the answer became part of the day’s Trump narrative.
After Marine One took off, a bunch of us who got questions in gave each other professional appreciation nods and fist bumps.
There are other variations of this access, such as Trump taking questions on the flightline or when he walks to the back of Air Force One for a gaggle.
Trump also invites reporters into the Oval Office for the signing of legislation or executive orders, as well as cabinet meetings. These opportunities are not open to every reporter; rather, there is a rotating handful of reporters, videographers and still photographers selected by the White House Press Office, whose content is available to everyone.
Greet-Meet-Eat
For heads-of-state meetings, the White House staff calls it “Greet-Meet-Eat.” The president and the world leader greet the press in the Oval Office, with Trump and his guest sitting in front of the fireplace. Then the two leaders sit down for their discussions, followed by a luncheon for the leaders and their staffs.
The most famous Greet-Meet-Eat was actually just a Greet. Barely a week after returning to the White House, Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. The two men were set to sign a major agreement for the U.S. to exploit Ukrainian mineral deposits as recompense for military and economic assistance.
While the tables were being set for the lunch, the Oval Office meeting went off the rails when Vice President James D. “J.D.” Vance called out Zelensky for his lack of respect and decorum. It did not get better when Trump told Zelensky he did not hold the cards for the demands he was making — and then Zelensky got into a back-and-forth with my RAV colleague Brian Glenn.
Glenn asked Zelensky why he was not wearing a suit, like Glenn was wearing. P“Do you own a suit?” the reporter asked.
“I’ll wear a suit after this war is over,” the Ukrainian president said. “Maybe one something like yours, maybe better, maybe cheaper.”
The reporters were soon ushered out of the Oval Office by the wranglers. The wranglers are the junior staffers at the press office who ride herd on the reporters and coordinate with each day’s pool. These young men and women are not to be dismissed. I dealt with current White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in the first term when I covered the White House for One America News.
After the reporters were dismissed from the Oval Office, it was Zelensky’s turn — no meeting, no luncheon — and the staff was told to start breaking down the tables and chairs.
Most recently, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva derailed his own Greet-Meet-Eat.
Da Silva, a leader of the left-wing axis of anti-American Latin American governments, came to the White House on May 7 to work out tariffs Trump imposed on Brazil.
When Lula arrived, the Brazilian leader said he would prefer to have his meeting and meal first, then greet the reporters with the president.
Trump agreed, but Lula pulled a fast one.
After the meeting and luncheon — as the press pool waited nearly two hours to be called into the Oval Office — Lula looked at his watch and begged his leave. His next appointment was a press conference at the Brazilian embassy.
He may have thought it was funny, but Trump does not forget slights easily, and Lula can look forward to being handed the bill for this stunt in time.
Briefing room flex
In this term, the president has held seven solo press conferences, but none in prime time. He has met with reporters for informal gaggles more than 350 times and is on track for more than 1,000 by the time he starts his third term.
Although Karoline Leavitt also meets informally with reporters for gaggles in the driveway by the West Wing, for White House reporters her more than 60 press briefings are the mainstay of their coverage.
There are 49 seats in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room — seven rows of seven. Each seat is assigned by the White House with input from the White House Correspondents’ Association. Some assigned seats are a function of seniority, while others are assigned to ensure that regional and foreign news outlets get a fair shot.
The front rows go to the mainstream media heavies: Fox News, CNN, The New York Times and the three traditional broadcast networks. The dozens of reporters without assigned seats start showing up two hours before the briefing to secure a foothold along the walls of the room. The jockeying gets nasty, with late arrivals worming and squirming into gaps between their colleagues.
While these reporters fight for a shot at catching Levitt’s eye, the front rows are always empty until the two-minute warning, except for where Fox’s Peter Doocy sits. He is always there early.
Upon the two-minute warning, reporters quickly tell their editors and control booths to get ready, but the real signal that the briefing is about to start is when the front-row reporters plow through their less fortunate colleagues packed to the gills between the wall and the chairs.
“Excuse me, excuse me, coming through,” is the signal call from the elite members of the White House press corps as they execute their regular flex on the little people.
Leavitt opens with statements and messaging before opening it up to the floor — and the game is afoot.