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Trump’s Rashomon Press Conference
Donald Trump’s press conference Thursday was the worst political failure in presidential history. And the presser was the most deft performance by a President ever witnessed.
Wait … which of the above sentences is true? Depends who you ask. First, let’s look at the response of Trump’s detractors.
CNN:
Trump held court during a news conference that lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, carving out a stunning moment in modern American political history. He displayed a sense of anger and grievance rarely vented by a President in public — let alone one who has been in office for just four weeks.
President Trump on Thursday aired his grievances against the news media, the intelligence community and his detractors generally in a sprawling, stream-of-consciousness news conference that alternated between claims that he had “inherited a mess” and the assertion that his fledgling administration “is running like a fine-tuned machine.”
…Yet moments later, the president seemed to acknowledge the widespread reports of turbulence and upheaval emanating out of his West Wing, only to claim that his White House — which so far has been marred by staff infighting, a controversial travel ban, false statements and myriad leaks — was operating seamlessly.
[T]he session was marked by an extraordinarily raw and angry defense the likes of which has never been seen in a modern White House. At times abrupt, often rambling, characteristically boastful yet seemingly pained at the portrayals of him, Mr. Trump seemed intent on reproducing the energy and excitement of his campaign after a month of grinding governance. He returned repeatedly to his contest with Hillary Clinton and at one point plaintively pleaded for understanding.
From these reports, it appears that a petulant, dissembling Trump ranted and raved for more than an hour and caused incalculable damage to his presidency and his agenda. But not so fast. Despite these reports by the “objective” press, let’s see how reporters not as reflexively contemptuous of Trump reported the event.
President Trump Thursday abruptly revived the aggressive, freewheeling style he exhibited during the presidential campaign — boasting, attacking and complaining his way through an hour-long East Room news conference.
As he did during the campaign, Trump singled out reporters for particular scorn, touting them as embodying of everything that he saw wrong with Washington: elitism, dishonesty and insularity.
Townhall’s Guy Benson:
With the media loudly demanding that he take questions from traditional mainstream outlets following yesterday’s kerfuffle, President Trump gave the press what they wanted: A lengthy news conference at which reporters from virtually every outlet under the sun were able to pose questions, often with multiple follow-ups.
Trump began by reading with a lengthy statement from which he characteristically departed and ad libbed at some length. It felt like a choreographed effort to talk over the heads of the news media “gatekeepers,” and communicate directly with the American people. While he frequently oversimplifies and over-applies his frustrations (dismissing all news and polls he doesn’t like as “fake,” for instance), the president is understandably frustrated with a press corps that really has seemed determined to cover his administration in a relentlessly negative light, sometimes in hysterical and unfair terms, from day one.
The president spoke and took questions for more than an hour and 15 minutes, even joking with some reporters toward the end and saying he was having fun. In a bid to preempt negative coverage of his remarks, Trump insisted he was not “ranting and raving.” But he lamented that the “tone” of coverage of his administration is one of “such hatred.”
“The public doesn’t believe you people anymore,” he said.
I missed the press conference live and, according to a brief perusal of journalist Twitter, I assumed it was a train wreck. Then I saw Ricochet member @patrickb63’s post, which was filled with positive comments by Ricochet members. Only then did I watch the event via YouTube.
(Starts just at the 1:00:38 hour point, ends at about 2:18:00)
Trump concluded his press conference with a response to a question about crime. “This isn’t Donald Trump that divided a nation,” the President said. “We went eight years with President Obama and we went many years before President Obama. We lived in a divided nation. And I am going to try — I will do everything within my power to fix that.” Just so and Godspeed.
Rashomon, a 1950 film directed by Akira Kurosawa, focused on a murder retold by four characters. The versions were radically different, each flattering the teller and confirming their own biases. As with so much news about Trump, his press conference served as its own Rashomon.
So what did you see in today’s presser: A bravura performance by Trump holding the deceptive press corps’ feet to the fire, or a lying President devastated by truth-telling journalists?
Published in General
That is indeed the question.
Well, I’m not sure I understand what you really meant.
Deifying any political leader, traditional or not, is a mistake. They will let you down. Remember the Obama messianic cult and take heed it did not end well for his followers.
And I was trying to probe to find out what you meant.
Well, not really. In their own ways, they are behind the ‘hate Trump’ mania and are doing their best to foment dislike and distrust in the new administration.
Ok, got your POV. So?
Wow. Just wow. Did we both watch the same press conference? Four weeks and he hasn’t cured cancer?
You watched the president, he watched the anti-Christ.
Ricochet has nuance and perspective, he wants a forum of monolithic Never Trumpers.
Pointless discussion.
That ain’t happening.
Davy Crockett was not from Kentucky.
He was born on a mountain top in Tennessee.
He killed a bear when he was only 3. The bear was 3, Crockett was 32.
Wow. Did it sound as condescending as it reads? Mollie Hemingway was on the Special Report panel tonight and seemed much more pro-press conference.
GWB terribled himself into a second term. His own errors with Iraq (refusing to acknowledge the need for a new strategy and replace Rumsfeld prior to midterms) doomed him in 2006, and the housing crisis (fairly or not) cemented his bad reputation.
In the end, what Trump does will matter more than the games he plays with the media. The question is whether these games will make it easier for him to get his job done, or more difficult. I would argue that if there are any real setbacks, these sorts of antics provide a ready made excuse for people to turn on him.
Crockett was half horse half alligator. That culture is not unique to Tennessee. It extends the entire Ohio-Mississippi River Basin, including the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. Riverboat Boasting goes all the way back to the first settlers.
And oddly enough, Crockett probably didn’t engage in it, despite being from the area, and despite the legends -he was a farmer, not a boatman.
And the modern equivalents are less classy, with the boasting tending to be far more regarding *ahem* more private prowess.
I think this deserves a response. My understanding is that Flynn did not do anything wrong as he was talking to the Russians. In fact, Flynn didn’t even do anything “wrong” as in illegal even when talking to Pence. So, an story that indicated that Flynn was part of some conspiracy or committed a “wrong” action is fake. At face value, Flynn was fired because he forgot about a part of his conversation with the Russians.
So what Trump is saying is that the hysteria is all fake news. However, the details are partly true. In particular, the fact that in conversations between Flynn and the Russians sanctions were mentioned was true. However, we still don’t know (as far as I know) what was said.
Even one of the agencies basically said that Flynn hadn’t said anything bad like getting quid pro quo or anything like that.
Therefore, I agree with Trump that there was much fake reporting on some true leaks.
Again, this should all be classified so I don’t actually know, it’s just what I have heard.
He also whupped bears and loved any crocodile.
David Crockett was a 19th century Chuck Norris.
I didn’t vote for Trump in the primaries, either. But I knew that he was going to win as early as July 2015, which is when he utterly and righteously trashed that egomaniacal poser John McCain.
Listened to the whole thing. The rest of the show, they both talked about how great Trump did and how awful the press was.
You’re ruining this.
In Calvin Coolidge’s day, the job of the president might have been to ignore the press and do his job. Today, the media is utterly relevant, the president is a media celebrity, which is part of how we ended up with the reality tv star president.
I think that what he did yesterday was a completely essential part of him trying to do his job.
As Bibi said in their presser the other day, the president also welcomes the opportunity to move beyond the labeling that the media does on every issue to actually try to solve problems.
Because the president is not an ideologue and does not worry about the purity of his thinking, I believe he actually has a much better chance of getting things done than the media with their black and white thinking can even envision.
When he speaks of trying to move beyond the divided nation, the thing the hyperventilating media fail to realize is that the actual presser did that. Hundreds of thousands of people watched this whole presser on their own and are now feeling pretty good about this guy.
With luck and a little intelligence, even journalists might be able to see that it is in the best interests of the whole country if the guy succeeds.
And to be fair, that line about nuclear holocaust being “unlike anything else” was quite funny.
Even for someone like me who has a big smile of satisfaction on after listening to the president for more than an hour (such a joy!), I find that many of the things the president says are simply too funny to not repeat.
He may milk the shtick a bit, but he plays pretty well.
Our household is very fond of the president’s line when he interrupted David Muir in his interview a week or two ago: “Critics? Who are these critics? Fools, I call them!”
No. That was despicable. And you were right, he did win. But you confused which man was egomaniacal.
Wouldn’t you agree that both men are quite in love with themselves?
The main-stream press were called out by the President, on a world-wide stage, and demeaned, insulted and humiliated. They deserved every last minute of it.
There’s plenty about Trump I don’t like, but he can quit beating on the press when I start feeling sorry for them.
Heh.
I didn’t see it because I was on my way here, to Cali Colombia, and I don’t want to see it and spoil the good mood this wonderful climate, beautiful people and great food is already giving me. It would disappoint as almost always. He must leave daily communicating with the public to the outstanding staff he has appointed. He is almost pathologically inarticulate. The enemy is who they are and neither Trump or the left are going to change, but Trump has the advantage of being surrounded by conservatives and very competent intelligent experienced people and knowing how to get things done and with the right people in place probably they will be the right things. The left is surrounded by their own unique miasma that always just gets worse and never gets anything right.
And this is all that really matters. In politics, in our system, this is power. It is fickle, and Trump has to rally and use it as fast as he can. Bush I sat on it and died on the vine.
Moses was righteous.
Dathan was self righteous .
I love Coolidge too.
Things have changed a bit since the 1920’s.