By Aaron Miller-
President Donald Trump has accused the media of covering his press secretary , Sarah Huckabee in a rude way.
The U.S president said he told White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders “not to bother” with press briefings anymore, in a tweet blaming the press for the drastically reduced press engagements. Trump repeated his perpetual criticism of the press as spreaders of inaccurate news, echoing his long held branding of the media as careers of fake news. His tweet said it all:
“The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!” Trump tweeted. Sanders and Trump have instead opted for less formal Q&A’s from different areas of the White House or while boarding Marine Force One, the president’s helicopter. And even during those exchanges, Trump has often expressed hostility to questions from the media.
Trump is now his own communications director. It is over a month since his press secretary has taken questions from reporters in the briefing room. It is the longest period in which an American administration has gone without an on-camera briefing. The White House press office telephone lines are also completely shut down due to the government shut down.The White House is reacting to its perception of a hostile press towards Trump and his press secretary.
Press briefings under the Trump administration have become tense and sometimes confrontational, it had grown into an inevitable rivalry between the White House and the general American press. Criticisms of Trump’s administration have become common place; his legal battles added to some of the live investigations focusing on him and his former associates has set him at opposite ends with a critical press that finds him falling short on many fronts.
In Trump’s favour, the American economy is in a good condition, leaving minimal complaints in this area. The president himself has gloated on his success with the American economy; indeed prioritising Americans in his economic and business vision for the country was part of his American pledge. The economy is not in its strongest position historically. Its healthy annual rate of 4.2% was better in the third quarter of 2014, when it was 4.9%.