Donald's Daily Dance With The Press

Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein ponders Donald's daily press conferences:

Let’s get back to President Donald Trump’s daily press conferences — which, unfortunately, he is still combining with briefings from his coronavirus task force. As Trump was snapping at reporters on Monday, political scientist Matthew Dickinson wrote: “I have to think the reporters at these press conferences like to provoke Trump with these questions as much as Trump loves to dump on them for asking them. It serves both their purposes. #Symbiosis”

It’s a good point— but perhaps more complicated than it seems.

On one hand, the basic claim is probably true. Getting berated by the president on national television is a good career move for White House reporters. It raises their visibility and improves their reputation among other journalists. And the president surely thinks his tirades help generate enthusiasm among his strongest supporters.

But the question isn't really whether reporters like asking tough questions or whether Trump likes insulting the press. It’s whether the whole process is good for the nation. I think it is.

Trump faced three tough questions on Monday. One was about virus testing, in particular the president’s boast that the U.S. is doing more of it per capita than any other country. Another was about Trump’s hint, the day before, that someone was stealing or otherwise misusing personal protective equipment at New York hospitals. And the third was about all the times that Trump had claimed the coronavirus was under control when it wasn’t.

Each of these is a valuable question. The reporters involved probably knew that Trump would respond with fireworks, and may have even welcomed them. But the questions themselves were perfectly reasonable, not grandstanding gimmicks.

As for the answers? Trump seemed to have something prepared for the testing question Monday, although it didn’t do him much good. When PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor challenged him on the topic, he claimed to “know South Korea better than anybody” and asked her to guess the population of Seoul, which he then triumphantly claimed was 38 million. Unfortunately for him, that was off by about 28 million. (Some speculated that he or someone on his staff had mistaken Seoul’s elevation for its population.) The result? Another round of negative stories.

The best thing about these confrontations is that they can encourage presidents to take action to provide themselves with better answers. In other words: Knowing that he’ll be asked tough questions about virus testing might push Trump to try to fix the problems that have been holding that testing up. Yes, he has also tried bluffing and bravado. But facing potentially embarrassing questions on live TV tends to be a strong motivator.

I know, you’re probably thinking that the president should act simply because lives are at stake. Sure. But Trump is hardly the first president to put political considerations before humanitarian ones. In fact, the U.S. government is designed to harness the motivation of self-interest precisely because it’s so hard to rely on a politician’s altruism. On balance, the questions reporters choose to ask generate imperfect but worthwhile information for the president about what is actually important to the nation. That’s a good thing, even if Trump isn’t always good at reading the clues. (This is the column in its entirety.)