Trump resists pressure to curtail his coronavirus briefings

If the president’s political advisers had their way, the daily briefings from the White House starring President Donald Trump would be things of the past. Trump, however, does not seem to agree.

For weeks, the president’s advisers have been urging him to scale back his appearances at the briefings, saying that what was intended to showcase the administration’s efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic have instead devolved into marathon grievance sessions that are doing him more political harm than good.

Over the weekend, Trump appeared to finally pay heed, insisting in a tweet that the briefings were “not worth the time & effort”.

What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2020

Early on Monday, the decision appeared to have been made. After initially putting a 5pm briefing on the daily schedules of both the president and Vice President Mike Pence, the White House reversed course and cancelled the event. Monday would have marked the third day in a row that the briefing had not been held.

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at the White House that Trump would instead take questions from the media during a meeting with retail industry executives scheduled for Monday afternoon. She insisted that there was no effort to curtail the briefings, but acknowledged that the president may not be appearing at them as frequently as in the past.

“We’re looking at different ways to showcase this president leading,” she said. “The briefing is a key component of that. We will have briefings this week.”

“They might have a new look to them, a new focus to them,” she added.

Then, just hours later, flip turned to flop and McEnany announced that the briefing was back on, and that Trump would play a starring role yet again.

UPDATE: The White House has additional testing guidance and other announcements about safely opening up America again. President @realDonaldTrump will brief the nation during a press conference this evening.

— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) April 27, 2020

While the briefings – often running more than two hours and filled with equal measures of bombast, braggadocio and attacks on his perceived enemies – may appeal to his most loyal base of supporters, Trump’s supporters both within and outside of the administration fear that inaccurate information from the president himself could be alienating some viewers, including senior citizens worried about their health.

Officials at Trump’s re-election campaign have also noted a slip in his support in some battleground states. With strict stay-at-home orders becoming increasingly unpopular across the country, Republican Party polling shows Trump’s path to a second term depends on the public’s perception of how quickly the economy rebounds.

Also driving the pressure on Trump is the fact that, as the briefings become longer and less newsworthy, many US media outlets have begun pulling away from them earlier and returning to regularly scheduled programming. Defending the decision in an opinion article published on Monday, NBC President Andrew Lack wrote that while the briefings “sometimes include pertinent and significant information” they have more often turned into sideshows “filled with false and misleading statements, compulsive boasting and self-promotional videos”.

“That’s why with each live briefing, many news outlets, including ours, are aggressively fact-checking in real time, assessing the value to viewers minute to minute and cutting away when warranted,” Lack wrote.

The advice is that Trump should let Pence and public health officials take the lead at any briefings going forward and only appear when there are positive developments to discuss, something Trump has been reluctant to embrace. The president is said to crave the daily spotlight provided by the briefings, the closest thing he currently has to his beloved political rallies, and frequently talked up their robust television ratings and his ability to dominate the news cycle and drown out his likely general election opponent, Democrat Joe Biden.

Though Biden would seem to be at a disadvantage when it comes to getting voters’ attention during the pandemic, his relatively low profile does not appear to have hurt him. Recent polls in key swing states such as Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania have the former vice president gaining support since the start of the pandemic.

Trump’s approval ratings, on the other hand, after bouncing slightly in the early days of the outbreak, have drifted back down to the levels – about 43 percent of Americans say they approve of the president’s handling of his job – that have remained relatively consistent throughout his presidency.

Trump’s aides want to move the president away from pandemic response duty onto more familiar – and safer, they hope – ground: talking up the economy, in tighter controlled settings.

Trump last left the White House grounds a month ago, and plans are being drawn up for a limited schedule of travel within the next few weeks, aides said, a symbolic show that the nation is beginning to reopen.

Trump is expected to begin to highlight his administration’s work in helping businesses and employees. Aides said the president would hold more frequent roundtables with CEOs, business owners and beneficiaries of the trillions of dollars in federal aid already approved by Congress, and begin to outline what he hopes to see in a future recovery package.

For at least the time being, however, Trump appears to be clinging to his briefing room pulpit whatever the cost or consequence.