Former President Trump continues to feed establishment media members by granting 22 interviews for 17 separate books.
Axios reports that “Trump personally made all these decisions on who to see,” sometimes lending 90 minutes of his time to an interview or asking the “journalists” to stay and eat dinner at Mar-a-Lago with him.
Many of the establishment media figures are as follows:
- Maggie Haberman (New York Times)
- Jonathan Karl (ABC News)
- Michael Bender (Wall Street Journal)
- Phil Rucker (Washington Post)
- Carol Leonnig (Washington Post)
- Susan Glasser (New Yorker)
- Peter Baker (New York Times)
- Jonathan Martin (New York Times)
- Alex Burns (New York Times)
- Ryan Lizza (Politico)
- Olivia Nuzzi (New York magazine)
- Jeremy Peters (New York Times)
- Ari Fleischer (Fox News)
- Ramin Setoodeh (Variety)
- Michael Wolff (USA Today)
Maggie Haberman, for instance, has made a living from covering Trump in the White House, describing him after the 2020 election as someone who “can’t handle the concept of the label ‘loser.'”
Another one on the list, Jonathan Karl, has attacked Trump for supposedly waging “an assault on truth.” Karl also gave Trump unfair press before his first impeachment trial, accusing Trump of dining “with Romney and Collins as he courts party loyalty in impeachment battle.”
Phil Rucker, also an MSNBC contributor, has written of Trump, “After inciting mob attack, Trump retreats in rage. Then, grudgingly, he admits his loss.”
Michael Bender from the Journal wrote a story on June 18 that made Trump look out of step with his son-in-law Jared Kushner in which Bender quoted a “confidante,” who relayed that Trump was angry with Kushner for leading him down the wrong path.
“‘I’ve done all this stuff for the Blacks—it’s always Jared telling me to do this,’ Trump said to one confidante. “And they all fucking hate me, and none of them are going to vote for me.'”
Carol Leonnig of WaPo published an article in December about a petty dispute next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago have with Trump.
“Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has called his Winter White House, have a message for the outgoing commander in chief: We don’t want you to be our neighbor,” she wrote of Trump.
The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser attacked Trump for labeling the establishment media “fake news.” She wrote that the label was “an act of shameless linguistic larceny” and “in the two months since Trump’s upset win, the ‘fake news’ conversation had been all about the weaponization of falsehoods by Trump and for his political benefit.”
Peter Baker from the Times wrote a headline in February, when Trump was exonerated in his second impeachment trial, saying that it was “Not an Exoneration” but an “escape” of justice.
Jonathan Martin, also from the New York Times, bashed Trump’s “presence” in the Republican Party, writing April 10 that “A gathering of Republican leaders and top donors in Florida this weekend is less a reset of priorities and more a reminder of the tensions that Donald J. Trump instills in his party.”
The Times‘ Alex Burns took aim at Trump in November, claiming the 2020 election had the “absence of a questionable outcome or any evidence of fraud,” while “President Trump managed to freeze the passage of power for most of a month.”
Ryan Lizza from Politico asked former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany a gotcha question: Did Trump think “it was a good thing that the South lost the Civil War.”
McEnany called the question “absolutely absurd.”
Olivia Nuzzi from New York magazine was interviewed by Slate and spoke about “learning to report under Donald Trump, her regrets, and all the very dumb things she saw along the way.”
Jeremy Peters wrote a headline in October after Trump had coronavirus: “As Trump Recovers, He Retreats to a Conservative Media Safe Space.” Meanwhile, Trump has been one of the most accessible presidents to the establishment media.
Ari Fleischer from Fox News said in January, after the January 6 incident, that “at this point, I won’t defend him anymore.” “I won’t defend him for stirring the pot that incited the mob. He’s on his own.”
Ramin Setoodeh from Variety has written that Rosie O’Donnell, Trump’s sworn enemy in Hollywood, warned “us about Donald Trump’s misogyny” and “his false swagger” and “braggadocio.”
Michael Wolff, a previous columnist for USA Today, said Trump “does not read, does not listen. He is like a pinball, just shooting off the side.”
It should be noted Trump has given a few interviews to establishment media exiles, such as the Federalist’s Ben Weingarten and the New York Post’s Miranda Devine. Axios also reported Trump refused interviews from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
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