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We’ve seen this humiliating ritual time and time again.
1. Reporter asks Trump a question, and uses the deferential tone normally reserved for a Dickens character meeting the Queen. “Beggin’ your pardon, your majesty (bows), I am but a humble chimney sweep and fish monger not worthy of breathing the same air as you (bows again), but might I please, please pretty please ask a tiny little question?” (bows even lower)
2. Trump responds exactly as Trump does: with rage, insults, lies, and nothing resembling an actual answer.
And then the reporter either:
a) doesn’t follow up, or
b) follows up in the soft-focus tone of a children’s librarian.
“Your majesty, you said the Earth is flat, which is a difference of opinion from some scientists…”
So the cycle continues.
Too many reporters are still using the old rules, treating Trump as if he were a normal president, deserving respect. But he’s not.
He’s a dick. A free-range dick, going wherever he wants on the truth and subject spectrums. And he gets away with it because we’re supposed to be polite and deferential to the president.
The only way to get a real answer from Trump is to aggressively call him out on his bullshit in real time, and, if necessary, to be a dick right back:
“Mr. President, you’re obviously lying, and everyone knows it. Are you not able to answer the question?”
“Mr. President, you are obviously full of shit. Do you need an enema before continuing with the press conference?”
“Mr. President, you said something today, then said the exact opposite thing 5 minutes later, and then denied it. Did you have a stroke?”
We need to make him look like a fool when he doesn’t answer the question.
And we need to make him look weak — the one thing that his supporters won’t forgive.
We get that it’s incredibly hard to be a reporter dealing with Trump, and big kudos to those trying to get the truth, risking the wrath of him and his supporters.
But the old way is no longer working, and it’s time to take a new approach.And the next time Trump steamrolls a press conference, reporters must remember:
Democracy doesn’t need more deference.
It needs a spine.
It needs pushback.
It needs truth spoken out loud, in real time, without apology.
If the press won’t fight back, authoritarianism wins by default.
Don’t let that happen.
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