The political stunt called the White House Press Briefing on January 3rd in Washington DC was marked by Trump’s misuse of the media for his one-way propaganda about the border-wall.
And it happened. On a five minute notice from the Press Secretary, the first White House Press Briefing of 2019. As Sarah Sanders entered the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, she, to the surprise of everyone present, introduced an unexpected speaker, the President of the United States.
Surrounded with a group of bold, Soprano’s looking border patrol agents, Trump gave a statement on the government shutdown and border wall. Then, he passed an open mic to the border patrol agents to advocate on his behalf for the Wall, an object of contention causing the government shutdown that has now entered into its thirteenth day.
After his pompous and, as per usual, dramatic delivery, not missing a chance to brag about entering the press room for the first time (as if a lack of government transparency was something positive to self-praise about) he left the podium making it obvious that he had no intention of facing any questions.
Donald Trump kicked off his New Year interaction with the media at the spur of the moment, with a one-way government delivery, the kind we often see in underdeveloped democracies without a free press.
Political discourse for Trump means a political monologue. He doesn’t like to be challenged, and what he did today was using the “fake news” to deliver his message and shift the news cycle from Nancy Pelosi to himself. And it worked.
If the President of the United States enters the press room, he should be taking questions from the journalists. That is the very point of the press briefing room, a very special place the 45th President of the United States has shut down for accountability and taking questions.
Today, Trump’s refusal to be accountable in front of the American public has gone to a brand new, 2019 level. The President of the United States is only going to become more brash and exploitive of the media to deliver his retrograde, isolationist immigration policies or whatever version of international history he wants to headline. This was not a press briefing. Just a propaganda delivery for the sheep. The worst is yet to happen.