On Tuesday, President Trump held a press briefing in the Rose Garden with the purpose of outlining a new executive order on trade with Hong Kong – but he quickly pivoted into political attacks on presumptive Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden.
It was a shift in traditional press briefing behavior that resulted in at least two national news networks cutting away from the campaign-style speech.
Throughout our nation’s history, our leaders have had different takes on the presidential press conference – its purpose, its political usefulness, and its frequency.
Generally, the presidential press conference is looked at as a forum for the press to keep leaders in check and for our presidents to explain policy decisions to the public.
The traditional press briefing hasn’t appeared to be President Trump’s preferred way of communicating, but during the early weeks of the pandemic, he took to the podium almost daily. Things often got heated.
During a clash with PBS NewsHour reporter Yamiche Alcindor, Trump attacked her credentials, a routine occurrence between the President, who often calls the media the “fake news,” and journalists. When Alcindor asked him about comments he’d made about ventilators, Trump responded, with the two talking over one another: “No one trusts the media anymore. Excuse me, you didn’t hear me. That’s why you used to work with the [New York] Times and now you work for somebody else.”
But this tension isn’t entirely out of character with the century-old practice of the presidential press conference.
Shortly after Woodrow Wilson came into office in 1913, he invited reporters to a gathering, hoping to speak to each individually. One hundred twenty five showed up, so he made a speech, and the practice stuck.
“They weren’t exactly jolly or spontaneous affairs. He would get testy at times, as President Trump does, and he would say, that’s a ridiculous question,” says Harold Holzer, Director of Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute.
In part to prevent Wilson from ending his press briefings, a group of journalists formed the White House Correspondents’ Association. Today, among other logistics, the group is in charge of who has a seat in the briefing room. During the pandemic, the organization has operated on a rotating schedule.
National crises tend to result in more press briefings. Franklin Roosevelt typically held conferences twice a week during the second World War and the New Deal. These meetings, like all previous presidential press conferences, were off-the-record, providing an opportunity for the administration to soften or spin previously shared information. FDR is also known for transforming the president-press relationship by knowing when to take a lighter tone with reporters.
”He would joke about their cheap suits, and their social lives, and their drinking, and their golf,” describes Holzer.
In the 1950s, under President Dwight Eisenhower, the briefings went on the record – and were televised for the first time.
Americans tuned in, and the major networks aired them. President Trump has at times turned press briefings into must-see TV.
According to Martha Joynt Kumar, Director of the White House Transition Project, President Trump taps into his entertainment television background for how he runs press briefings. “He is the ringmaster. He is the showman. That's what he brings to the presidency, his reality TV and his interest in it and interest in how television operates and making good use of it.”
Independent fact checkers say this sometimes has him uttering falsehoods. The Washington Post found that President Trump has made 20,000 false or misleading statements since taking office – an average of more than 15 a day.
For comparison, the New York Times found that Barack Obama told an average of two untruths per year during his time in office.
While his relationship with the press is contentious, Trump sees coverage as key to his political brand. He’s actually had more interactions with the press than his five predecessors.
But Trump tends to prefer venues that give him a bit more control than the press conference. As Ronald Reagan did, he likes to talk to reporters on the White House lawn before boarding his chopper, and of course, throughout his presidency, he’s used his rallies and his Twitter account to get his message out.
There’s always been a degree of tension between presidents and the press. The future of press conferences, their tone, and their frequency, depends largely on how the administration in charge prefers to communicate its message.