Jay Weber Show transcript 5-1-25
I love this story: Politico reports that the DC press pool is annoyed and frustrated that pretty much ‘all’ of Trump’s top officials have adopted his more combative way of dealing with the so-called news media.
This is fun.
The main beef seems to be that they ‘get blowback at all’ instead of just sheep answering their snotty questions...which is what these DC reporters have become used to. Even when republicans are in office.
But-a significant ‘side beef’ seems to be that trump’s team is also ‘fact checking them’ in real time. Often to their faces. Often right as they post ‘fake news’ and ‘false information’ on their social media pages.
This is great.
You see-the normal way that a complaint would be handled if the administration...or any given congressmen...didn’t like the way that one of these news outlets was reporting a story...or thought they had the facts wrong-
The normal way to complain would be to ‘call the editors of that news operation...and talk to them.... wait to exchange phone calls...then get the ‘run around’ as the editors would blindly defend their reporter’s coverage...etc.
And-most importantly- with that process- the American people, readers, and viewers never get to hear the complaints. Right?
No matter what goes on behind the scenes and how wrong the reporter was, or the fallout gets.... We, the people, are ‘none the wiser.
That’s the way the news outlets want it. They want to be viewed as ‘truth tellers who get the story right’...and so they are going to block any complaints or fallout. Only rarely will they be forced into making a correction or a retraction...and even then...that normally ends up in a little box on page 15....or buried at the end of a broadcast.
So-imagine how steamed these arrogant ivory tower reporters and editors are when trump and his cabinet members ‘call them out’ to their faces-and in ‘real time’ on social media!
Politico reporters seem particularly miffed about this...because they are mostly former journalists who worked for major newspapers and have landed at a place in which they can get away with never naming their sources.... if they don’t want to. A significant percentage of politico reporting includes the so-called ‘anonymous sources’.... who we aren’t going to name so that they can tell the truth’.
Oh. Okay.
This piece suggests these DC reporters are growing increasingly steamed that they are being challenged and corrected.
Good.
Put yourself in the reporter’s shoes: imagine how infuriating it would be to think you’ve got a great story. You are posting an exclusive. You put in the work of writing it...and send it to your editors...who splash it around as breaking news.
You puff up your chest- yes! Great story!
Only to have it pooped on within minutes or hours...by trump’s team members-
Who also happen to be more credible with the American people than you are right now.
As a former journalist I can tell you that’s gotta sting. All your hard work and energy and excitement- trashed and invalidated- within minutes.
And...at least occasionally ending...with you looking like an ass: where’d you get that ballcap, Marty? What sort of sap are you...that you didn’t check that out, first?
Of course, the very sheltered, never directly challenged, elite media hate this. Of course they do.
Heck-it’s got to be killing them, this week, that trump and his team are simply ‘going around’ the news media in order to celebrate the many wins they’ve had over the first 100 days.
That’s what the cabinet meeting was about yesterday...and what sending out his team members to do media interviews all over the alternative media....is all about this week.
Inviting guys like Dan O’Donnell- top conservative talkers from around the country- to do their shows from dc this week- is another way trump’s team is doing this-
And it’s got to be driving them crazy.
And no-I don’t want to do my show from the white house. It’s a wonderful honor and opportunity for younger talkers like dan...or for those who need to build their brand....But I’m at the stage in my career that -if you want to invite me to the white house- I don’t want to do it ‘for work’. I want to ‘participate in the event’.
Don’t invite me to do a show at a White House broom closet. Invite me to be at the cocktail party or social event.
That! I got excited about it.
Anyway- it’s got to infuriate the legacy media outlets-even more-that trump’s team is simply ‘going around’ their crappy, negative coverage, to get the real story out...on trump’s first 100 days.
His chief of staff- Susan Wiles- did a rare interview with the NY Post...and by every account.... this woman is wonderful.
She’s super-smart, very savvy. She knows how to ‘handle’ trump and his different moods...etc.
She sounds like a genuine ‘match’ for Trump.
And he praised her like crazy, yesterday.
She also- I think- gains credibility for being honest with the NY Post. She gave them an a-plus on some things...and said...other things we need to do better on.... or give us an ‘incomplete’ on.
That is hugely different than what was going on I the Biden White House or goes on in most white houses.
In most White Houses-the chief of staff is trying to-limit-the daily interactions of the president-and exert as much influence over them as they-themselves-can. They want to be ‘co-president’.
Wiles is right to say: Trump works best when he’s getting all sorts of input from all sorts of people...and then we boil it down...to try to get to the truth...or to the smartest way forward.
Good for her.
She also said: 100 days is ‘one metric’ but check back in six months:
She also says the president loves what he’s doing. And you can tell. In his first term-and again in this one-you can tell Donald Trump loves being president. It’s probably what he thinks he was born for- and/or dodged an assassin’s bullet for.
He looks like he’s ‘loving this’ every day.
Wiles confirm it:
And she doesn’t’ say it, but I will: the pressure is also off him because he cannot run for another term. There is no question that he has risen to the top of the mountain. He ‘won’ life and legacy.... if you will...
And now it’s a matter of enjoying the limited time he’s got there.
He’s also a looser, funnier, more generous president this time around...than he was in the first term, it seems to me.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here > White House press corps not used to being held accountable