SAUNDERS: Thought Trump press briefings would be free-for-alls? Guess again

WASHINGTON — The first daily press briefing on behalf of President Donald Trump 2.0 was not what many predicted last year. Before Trump re-took the White House, there had been speculation that Trump World would eject the daily press briefings from the James S. Brady briefing room, with its 49 seats and standing-room in the aisles.

That didn’t happen. Tuesday’s briefing occurred in the usual space with the usual journalists — with minor tweaks — including a new press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, 27.

If there’s a difference between Trump 2017 and Trump 2025, it’s that tactics that kept the American public glued to White House briefings during Trump’s first term were set aside in favor of civility. Both the media and the administration behaved. It was almost boring.

Trump stayed out of the room — more than a baby step, and proof that Trump learned important lessons during his four years out of office.

But the dynamic is the same. The president needs the news media to reach voters. The news media need Trump to draw eyeballs and readers.

So if you think that relations between Trump and journalists are damaged beyond repair, consider this: There was not a single press question about Jan. 6.

Leavitt’s first briefing occurred after CNN’s outspoken anchor Jim Acosta announced that he is leaving the network. The histrionics had gotten old. In the last week, CNN announced it is cutting 200 jobs on top of 100 jobs cut over the summer.

At one point, the press secretary displayed a chart of a 2024 Gallup poll that showed Americans’ trust in the mass media to be in the toilet. Message heard. So the gotcha questions, the overblown umbrage, those elements were missing. For now, anyway.

The Associated Press’ Zeke Miller asked Leavitt the old-school, baptismal question which a press corps Solon always asks of White House spokespersons: Do you see your job as telling the truth?

Leavitt responded: “I commit to speaking truth from this podium every single day.” Then she challenged the room, saying, “We ask that all of you in this room hold yourself to the same standard.”

I was in the room, and I am pretty sure there was an implied threat lurking behind Leavitt’s talk about expanding the press room to include “new media.”

“In keeping with this revolutionary media approach that President Trump deployed during the campaign, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room,” Leavitt explained.

The PressSec swiped two seats in a row to her right, usually reserved for White House staffers, to accommodate “new media” outlets Axios and Breitbart. Really, Axios and Breitbart are green giants in a dying forest, so of course they were on board.

Leavitt used the ploy to invite bloggers, TikTok influencers and others interested in obtaining media passes for the White House to sign onto www.whitehouse.gov/newmedia.

The underlying message: Behave, children, or you might have to go without the access you have.

And that was just the first briefing of 2025.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.