A day after an hour-long window into his meeting with congressional lawmakers, President Donald Trump treated the televised portion of his Wednesday meeting with cabinet leaders like just another episode in his reality television show.
When the news cameras entered the room, Trump greeted them: “Welcome back to the studio.” He then touted 2017 as a year of “tremendous” and “monumental” achievement. He offered his typical over-the-top assessment of his own work, and as any good entertainer would to, he teased the moves to come.
President Trump in Cabinet Room: “Welcome back to the studio.” pic.twitter.com/jjZoJfrCq2
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 10, 2018
“I don’t think any administration has ever done, has done what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished in its first year, which isn’t quite finished yet,” he said. “You never know what’s going to happen over the next few days.”
After listing Republicans’ achievements, such as confirming a new Supreme Court justice and passing tax cut legislation, Trump talked about the “reviews” for his “performance” at the unusually long media spray at his Tuesday meeting with lawmakers. Trump is known to obsess over his portrayal in the media, spending hours in front of cable news each day and reportedly demanding a folder with positive news about him.
“It was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good, and my performance — some of them called it a performance; I consider it work — but got great reviews by everybody other than two networks who were phenomenal for about two hours,” Trump said in front of the cameras.
He then claimed that the anchors on the programs that aired his remarks sent the White House letters “saying that was one of the greatest meetings they’ve ever witnessed.”
“And they were great for about two hours. They were phenomenal,” he said of the cable news networks. “And then they went a little bit south on us but not that bad. It was fun. They probably wish they didn’t send us those letters of congratulations, but it was good.”
He then took credit for news networks’ ratings and for the fact that news outlets are still in business.
“I’m sure their ratings were fantastic. They always are. Which is why I think the media will ultimately support Trump in the end because they’re going to say if Trump doesn’t win in three years, they’re all out of business,” he said.
This is completely normal (tremendously normal, frankly, the most normal anyone has ever seen in history), another sign of what David Brooks called yesterday the increasing professionalism of the Trump administration. We can all breathe a sigh of relief!
I suppose the postal service deserves credit for delivering those letters overnight.
Perhaps Trump thinks his “presidency” is a reality TV show and not real?
Yes, because as we all know, there was no such thing as the media before 2015. Any reports alleged to predate Trump are, by definition, Fake News.
The televised cabinet meeting and immigration dog and pony show are nothing more than pathetic attempts to convince the American people that Russia’s Agent Orange is mentally fit for the job. Fail!