Donald Trump invites press to off-the-record session at Mar-A-Lago
On Sunday evening, Donald Trump invited reporters to an off-the-record session at his Mar-A-Lago residence, where he’s spending the holidays.
The press pool covering him reported, “Trump stopped by a staff off the record with reporters at Mar-a-Lago, mingling for about a half hour and according to [Trump press director] Stephanie Grisham decided to go to dinner afterwards. We are told we can report the fact that Trump and Melania stopped by the OTR with reporters.”
It is not unusual for elected officials to hold off-the-record meetings with the press -- ostensibly to give journalists insight into the principal’s thinking on an issue. This particular session took place as journalists continue to protest the fact that Mr. Trump has yet to hold a news conference since his election. It’s now been 145 days since his last news conference. He has, since the election, given interviews to CBS News, to New York Times reporters, and to Fox News, but the press conference he was to hold last week about the resolution of his business conflicts was postponed until the new year.
Mike Allen, formerly of Politico and now of Axios, was there and sent a series of tweets about the meeting in the White and Gold ballroom, saying in one that Mr. Trump was “relaxed and chatty” and that pictures were allowed of the off-the-record session.
Before they were admitted, journalists were sent through magnetometers.
They dined on cold cuts and Lays chips...
...and sipped Trump wine and champagne.
Many of the journalists who attended, including Allen, saw an uptick in outraged tweets aimed at them, though this one, from cartoonist Ann Telnaes, summed up the reaction visually.
In addition to Allen, AP’s Evan Vucci, Reuters’ Steve Holland and Jonathan Lucas, ABC’s Katherine Faulders and Hallie Jackson, Jeremy Diamond and Noah Gray of CNN, Ali Vitali of NBC, the Washington Post’s Jabin Botsford, the New York Times’ Nick Corasaniti, Buzzfeed’s Adrian Carrasquillo and Politico’s Tara Palmeri attended, among others.
Though the president-elect has not yet held a press conference, he’s hardly been silent since his election victory -- Mr. Trump is still tweeting regularly.
