Trump Floats New Press Secretary: Himself

Frustrated by the treatment of his communications staff by a hostile press corps, President Donald Trump suggested in a recent Fox News interview that he might take over the duties of briefing the media himself.

Trump spoke to Judge Jeanine Pirro in an interview that will air Saturday on Fox News Channel.

“Well, just don’t have them. Unless I have them every two weeks and I do them myself, we don’t have them. I think it’s a good idea.”

Trump told Pirro he is moving so quickly as president that his communication team cannot keep up. Pirro asked what Trump could do about that.

“Well, just don’t have them,” he said. “Unless I have them every two weeks and I do them myself, we don’t have them. I think it’s a good idea. First of all, you have a level of hostility that’s incredible, and it’s very unfair.”

Trump lamented that White House press secretary Sean Spicer — “a wonderful human being” — and deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders — “a lovely young woman” — are getting abused by the press corps.

[lz_third_party align=center includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YorGskyVppQ”]

“Well, he’s doing a good job, but he gets beat up,” he said when asked to assess Spicer’s performance. “He’s getting beat up. No, he just gets beat up by these people and, again, you know, they don’t show the 90 questions that they asked and answered properly. I’m saying if they’re off just a little bit — just a little bit, it’s the big story.”

Trump on Friday wrote on Twitter that, perhaps, the White House simply should hand out written responses to the White House press corps.

“As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!….” he tweeted.

He then added: “…Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future “press briefings” and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”

Trump has roiled the tradition-bound press corps since before he even took office. Incoming administration officials raised alarm in the media by suggesting that it would change seating assignments for briefings. At one point, officials suggested they might move the daily briefings to a larger room in order to accommodate more reporters. That, too, brought protests from some journalists.

[lz_related_box id=”794904″]

Ultimately, the briefings remained in the James S. Brady Briefing Room, but Spicer upset some traditional media by spreading questions to relative newcomers to the media landscape. LifeZette got the first question at his first news conference as press secretary.

The White House also started taking questions via Skype from local reporters and radio talk-show hosts in other parts of the country.

Another idea floated by the incoming administration was to prohibit television coverage of the daily news conferences. As Spicer’s contentious and parodied exchanges with reporters attest, this idea also never came to pass.