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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
Nice analysis. I don’t like those things about the president either.
Let me revise my thoughts, since I wrote in haste. Trump’s fans like his brash, take-no-prisoners combat with the press. I don’t mean they’re cool with half truths, etc.
But I’ve always liked a Cal Coolidge model. Consider the press utterly irrelevant and do your job. Ignoring them would insult them more than mockery, while at the same time draining them of ratings. If you consider much of the press to be enemies (which is 100% true in Trump’s case), indifference is more powerful than attacking them.
I’m not sure what else President Trump plans to do, but a few things that he did do:
Sent Secretary of Defense Mattis to warn NATO that they must meet their obligation in funding NATO.
Mending fences with Israel.
Nominate Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Are they not worthy of praise?
If the country wanted a smooth ride it would have elected Hillary Clinton. Instead, voters opted to “drain the swamp.“ And you can’t drain the swamp without angering the alligators and getting some swamp water on your pants. That’s what we’re watching now.
(borrowed from Scott Adams)
Trump is equal parts political genius and whiner. It’s amazing to listen to. What an unbeatable combination.
Jon, isn’t that what GWB did, in the macro? That strategy utterly backfired, as it permitted them to advance their narrative about GW and his Administration that went largely unanswered, at least in the MM.
Thus I think Trump is right to attack them. They’ve discredited themselves, and pointing it out is perfectly fair.
That’s a solid point. GWB was indifferent and it bit him in the butt. However, he was terrible at generating his own media. Trump is a master of getting his message out, be it on Twitter or elsewhere.
Nature abhors a vacuum; we’ll never be short of Trump stories, pro or con.
And that’s why Trump should resign immediately.
…
(Sorry, just trying to generate more comments. :) )
We should resign ourselves to his faults. He won’t change I think , pros and cons to all that. Real objective reporting about both him and his enemies will be a rarity
And he tried to protect us from potential terrorists until the court decided it had more authority on immigration.
I was listening to the Weekly Standard podcast with Michael Graham and Mark Hemingway on the press conference in the car on the way to get a bite to eat. Standard fare until the closing comments when Michael Graham asked Mark about the ‘Nuclear Holocaust’ comments.
You can find the podcast here. This exchange occurs about the last minute.
See, the thing is, we believe you mean it.
That’s not what we love about him haha! We love that he doesn’t care about PC. We love that he says whatever he wants to say without all the lawyerly parsing of every word to the point where nothing has been said at all. We love that nobody, including the leaders of foreign countries, knows what he’ll say or do next. And we love it that he’s not a career politician. He’s the only one who can set the country and the world back on course. Nobody else can do it. He’s our chance in a lifetime of reversing the course of the idiotic, childish, naive trend of globalism and wiping out ISIS, and it’s not a moment too soon. And I’ll add my usual FYI: I didn’t vote for him in the primaries.
So far I’ve been able to do that (resign myself) just by remembering that we might have had Hillary instead.
Yes, there’s that!
I spend my days caring about people with a boat load of flaws. You try to bring out the best in them but also be realistic.
We have a mixed bag for a president and I expect he will be infinitely better than the mixed up bag he beat. We shall see.
Seems some people are never happy with anything that does not fit their narrow mold of perfection.
So, [redacted] about Trump all you want, now then do this.
Go get the old paper doll figure that kids used to dress up with different paper outfits to get a presentable figure to admire.
Now make it life size to your liking and add a pull string to the back that will announce all the political speak you have prerecorded to please yourselves.
This is a test, projects due by Friday.
Well I actually listened to the thing. Then I read available transcription.
What did I think? I thought, two wrongs don’t make a right. Or, one sin doesn’t justify another. As a child I might justify my bad behavior by saying, “He started it!” At least in my house, that never worked.
Trump is not to blame for CNNs reprehensible behavior, only for his own.
It was wonderful and every word needed saying. The press has printed unsourced gossip for the last three weeks without regard for the fact that this man is the legitimately elected president.
As soon as work was over, I got some water and watched it, start to finish, in one sitting.
Everything he predicted, happened. He said the Fake MSM would portray him as angry and ranting and raving. He absolutely was not. He was calm, smiling, and happy. Very serious, but happy.
The Leftist MSM reporters really screwed up. Rather than spreading the questions on a wide variety of subjects and perhaps catching him unaware, they focused, as the President knew they would, on the only issue they felt they had as a wedge: Russia. Instead, he gave them absolutely nothing, despite, I think, 8 questions on the subject. Intelligent reporters would have changed the subject after the second miss. Yes there were a couple typical questions from BBC and a couple others, but really, the MSM’s tunnel-vision cost them any hope of getting somewhere.
I think the DNC told them to hammer Trump on Russia, and Trump was ready for it.
I’m backing this guy all the way, but if tomorrow we had a President Pence? I wouldn’t be on here complaining. Then if he chose Sessions as Vice President, we could all sit around watching the Left die of apoplexy!
CNN’s Jake Tapper actually used the word “unhinged.” I mean HUH?
Are you telling me you didn’t enjoy watching the MSM sputter and choke on their own tongues as Trump told them they were fake and they lied through their teeth? I sure did, but I would have been even happier if I could have seen their faces at the same time that they tasted their own bile in their mouths.
Watching these scum fawn over Obama for eight years, never asking a serious question no matter how many crimes or near-crimes the Administration committed, gave me the ability to enjoy todays event whole-heartedly. I’m still smiling.
Tapper is clearly unable to face the horrific morality of his profession and his own inherent status as loser. I wonder if medication could help him with that denial.
I suppose coming from a part of the country where bravado is a way of life, and where BS-ing is just kind of a lifestyle choice, Trump has never bugged me the way say Bill Clinton did. Clinton always seemed like he was parsing words in order to communicate the opposite meaning of the truth without actually lying -whereas Trump is grossly overstating things in order to express his real feelings.
No one thinks a Kentuckian is half-grizzly bear and half-crocodile, who can whip any man and love any woman. And when two of them get into a boasting match, it’s just bad form to point that out. You’re supposed to come up with more over the top descriptions of yourself to top that. The Electoral College vote thing even fits this form. “You said we couldn’t get 220. 230 was a joke. 270 was impossible. We got 306. That’s the greatest win since Reagan” is a boast -“We beat the spread into the dirt and spiked the football.” It’s not a statistic.
Trump says “no one’s ever done as much as we’ve done in four weeks,” and I hear “we’ve done a lot.” It’s the same reason why his supposed schizophrenia -complimenting Nikki Halley on one day, calling her an embarrassment another -doesn’t bother me. He’s expressing his opinions at each moment. He contains multitudes -sometimes he is angry at his colleagues, sometimes not.
How about self-righteous? Would that be close enough?
But we had that for eight years. Maybe it’s time for a change.
It’s not the way I speak or write, not particularly the way I think. But it is a recognizable pattern, and not that hard to understand once you recognize what’s going on. All things considered, it’s not going to be confused for Lincoln, either.
What’s the difference between righteous and self-righteous?
In political terms, he won this thing. He subverted a narrative, excited his base, and dominated another news cycle.