Trump Cracks Smile as PM Roasts the Press for Unintelligible Shouting
I’ve always found it interesting and curiously appropriate that an informal, on-the-record White House news briefing without videography is officially known as a “press gaggle.” A gaggle is, of course, the name given to a flock of geese. I’m not sure whether that makes “press gaggle” the most apt or redundant name of all time.
Every time the press is in the same room as the president or press secretary Sarah Sanders, almost without fail, an inchoate cannonade of questions which seem to have been formulated just as they escaped the mouth of questioner.
It’s an unedifying display, to say the least, and one that doesn’t reflect well upon the state of the fourth estate. They don’t seem to think so, however. Take flock leader Jim Acosta, who actually takes to Twitter when he doesn’t get a question in three straight press conferences. (Three! It’s a scandal on par with Watergate!)
Third press briefing in a row that @PressSec did not take a question from CNN. #courage
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 5, 2018
“#courage.” Because there’s nothing that helps your self-important whining sound less like self-important whining quite like channeling Dan Rather.
So, what does a foreign leader think about a press corps that doesn’t think? Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte experienced it firsthand at the White House on Monday, and he was decidedly unimpressed.
According to The Daily Caller, the president took part in your standard-issue photo-op with Rutte, who’s in town on a state visit. As the flash-bulbs went off, Trump joked it was like the Oscars.
Trump told the press that he spoke with four potential Supreme Court nominees — “I had a very, very interesting morning” — and congratulated Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was elected Sunday.
However, as The Caller pointed out, Rutte “was clearly shook by all the reporters shouting questions,” so much so that he even remarked upon it.
At the end of the photo op, PM Rutte was clearly amused as press aides shouted loudly at the press pool to clear out of the Oval Office. "Is it always like this?" Rutte asked Pres Trump, clearly in disbelief at the lack of decorum. Even Trump cracked a smile. pic.twitter.com/L8ZlmFuHQN
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) July 2, 2018
Rutte’s remark on the media didn’t exactly make the cut for most reports on the press conference — which is curious, since the leader of a foreign country calling out the White House news corps like that certainly qualifies as news.
Instead, here were the headlines:
Politico: “Mark Rutte interrupts Trump on tariffs.”
The London Guardian: “‘No’: Dutch prime minister awkwardly interrupts President Trump.”
The Huffington Post: “Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte Tells Off Trump Right To His Face.”
“Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte Tells Off Press Right To Their Faces” got left on the cutting room floor, I guess. What’s hilarious is that when Trump “tells off” leaders to their face or interrupts them, it’s reported as profoundly unpresidential. It’s totally cool when it’s Mark Rutte, however, even though the stakes are ridiculously low. (No offense to the Dutch, but they only have the upper hand when it comes to soccer and neither one of us is in the World Cup, so there’s not even any room to talk this summer.)
In other words, yes, Mr. Rutte. It is always like this.
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