The national media have been left frustrated and fuming with President-elect Trump’s unconventional transition to the White House, and have taken to complaining that even his process of selecting a Cabinet has a reality-show feel to it.
Since he was elected two weeks ago, Trump has spent most of his time at his New York home in Trump Tower and at one of his golf clubs in New Jersey, where he has met with a steady stream of people who might join his administration. But the press has bristled at the idea that the comings and goings are being broadcast.
On Tuesday, Trump said he was “seriously considering” his former GOP primary rival Ben Carson for secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and reports said he later offered him the job. In response, MSNBC correspondent Katy Tur likened Trump’s behavior to cheap reality TV.
“I mean, this is a serious break from tradition about how you take these cabinet positions and how you fill them,” she said. “You do it behind the scenes. You do it with a lot of serious thought. You do it with a lot of planning and a lot of conservations and then you come out and … you do it in a formal way and you introduce them in a news conference.”
She said Trump was “treating this” process “like one of his reality shows” by “parading in and out of Trump tower and keeping people in suspense.”
The day before, Trump hosted a meeting with TV news anchors and executives wherein he reportedly complained about the coverage he received during his campaign and his transition. One of the attendees of the meeting told the New Yorker that it left him “emotionally fucking pissed.”
“I know I am being emotional about it,” the attendee said. “And I know I will get over it in a couple of days after Thanksgiving. But I really am offended. This was unprecedented. Outrageous.”
The press at-large complained last week when Trump left his home to eat dinner at a steak house and without notifying the press.
It’s modern tradition, but not required by law, for the president-elect to travel when in public with a pool of reporters. That practice follows once the swearing-in takes place.
By not alerting the news media, Trump had flouted another norm.
Olivier Knox, White House correspondent for Yahoo News, complained that Trump had “ditched” the press. “Reporters were mocked for making a big deal of the incident, which did not feature Trump’s traveling far from his Trump Tower headquarters in Manhattan,” he wrote. “But it’s unprecedented in modern history for a president-elect not to have a protective pool…”
Trump has also upset the press with the way he has been in contact with foreign leaders. Trump, a longtime businessman with real estate and brand licensing deals in several countries, is known to have relationships with a number of world leaders.
After winning the election, the New York Times reported ominously that typical international relations were breached when foreign government leaders began making calls to Trump.
“President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt was the first to reach Mr. Trump for such a call last Wednesday, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not long afterward,” the Times said last week. “But that was about 24 hours before Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain got through — a striking break from diplomatic practice given the close alliance between the United States and Britain.”
The paper said described the phone calls as having a “haphazard” quality.
