Donald Trump’s bulging dream palace
Then the president interrupted him. “Did you ever think I would be called a peacemaker?”
“Actually, I did,” Glenn replied.
His question, when he touched on it, was about Alyssa Farah, a former aide in Trump’s first term in the White House who is now a co-host of ABC’s popular daytime talk show “The View” and an outspoken critic of Trump. According to Glenn, Farrah promised to wear a “Make America Great Again” hat on television if he could actually secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but she has not done so yet. After explaining all of this to the president, his question to Trump was just two words: “Your response?”
A day later, Glenn was back before Trump, in a press conference featuring the president and FBI Director Kash Patel. News of the event were, among other things, Trump’s complaint that law enforcement agencies should investigate and prosecute more of his political enemies, and his assertion that he had secretly ordered the CIA to carry out operations inside Venezuela. However, Glenn wanted to make a point about one of Trump’s longtime concerns — what the president calls the “rigged election” of 2020. “By the way, I won Georgia three times,” Glenn shouted to other reporters trying to ask questions. Ed O’Keefe of CBS News was seen standing in front of Glenn, shaking his head in what appeared to be exasperation. It was the last part of the exchange that really stood out. In response to Glenn, Trump said: “Yes, I agree. Do you agree with me?” After Glenn replied: “I agree with that,” the president quickly responded, saying: “It is the media! It is the media!”
I can’t think of a more perfect summary of the reasons why the Trump administration has done what it can to do away with the century-old tradition of independent reporting from the White House. In his second term, it is no longer enough to describe real news as fake; Now fake news is replacing actual journalists in order to represent the real thing. And when Trump wants validation, whether for his false claims of election fraud or any other lie, he can now claim that “the media” gave it to him. How long could it take until there was only Brian Glens in that room?
You might think that the Kremlinization of the White House press pool doesn’t really matter when there are so many other Trump-generated crises in the country. Or that journalists’ complaints about being deprived of their privileges are merely self-serving. Or that the President is not obligated, legally or otherwise, to answer anyone’s questions. All fair points.
But the reason we care about what happens in coverage of the presidency is because Trump cares about it perhaps more than anything else. There has never been a president more obsessed with the media, nor one for whom respect for others is so important, even if it is trivial in its ugliest form. He is known to spend hours a day reading news reports about himself. There are no details about his public photography that do not interest him. In a lengthy social media post this week, he rebuked time For a cover story about his Middle East diplomacy that was so complimentary, it was titled “His Triumph.” The reason for Trump’s anger was the accompanying photo, which he considered “the worst ever.” The point is: There is no satisfaction for a leader whose need for affirmation is so unfounded.
The template for Trump’s second term so far has been to remake the White House as a place increasingly free of constraints or criticism. Gone are the first-term advisers, like John Kelly or Jim Mattis, who saw themselves as checks on Trump’s tendency to go rogue. Only the men who agree and are sycophants need apply, and they seem to be competing more and more with each other to come up with as much flattery as possible for their boss. Last weekend, during a rally in Tel Aviv to celebrate the deal Trump brokered to release Israeli hostages, Trump’s Middle East negotiator, Steve Witkoff, declared him “the greatest president in American history.” It doesn’t take much imagination to think what such talk from his advisors does to a man with Trump’s ego. These questions journalists will soon be asking may be the last thing left linking the president to at least some form of reality.
That’s why it’s not hard to predict where all this will go. Trump seems to be building himself a dream palace of endless hypocrisy, a gilded safe space where there will be no more tough questions, no more annoying reporters or impertinent demands for information he doesn’t want to provide. Imagine how powerful the president, who already believes the Constitution gives him the power to “do whatever I want,” will feel. The Pentagon’s move to effectively ban the press from its halls this week was not an anomaly, but rather a preview. ♦