Trump-May Press Conference Shows How Journalism Should Be Done
Donald Trump and Theresa May held a joint press conference after a White House meeting today. Although the big news out of the meeting was that Trump and May reiterated their commitment to NATO, a full reading of the transcript gives a slightly more nuanced interpretation. There was never any verbal commitment made to NATO by Trump at this press conference. It was only mentioned by Theresa May in far from definitive terms. Said May, “[W]e are united in our recognition of NATO as the bulwark of our collective defense, and today we’ve reaffirmed our unshakable commitment to this alliance. Mr. President, I think you said, you confirmed that you’re 100 percent behind NATO”. Since we are dealing with Donald Trump, “thinking he said” something is not a reliable indicator of what he will actually do. In fact, “thinking he said” something usually means he said nothing at all.
Now let’s look at the two question from the UK reporters, one from the BBC and the other I’ve not been able to identity. Here is the BBC question, “Prime Minister, you’ve talked about where you agree, but you have also said you would be frank where you disagreed with the president. Can you tell us where in our talks you did disagree? And do you think that the president listened to what you had to say?…Mr. President, you’ve said before that torture works. You’ve praised Russia. You’ve said you want to ban some Muslims for — from coming to America. You’ve suggested there should be punishment for abortion. For many people in Britain, those sound like alarming beliefs. What do you say to our viewers at home who are worried about some of your views and worried about you becoming the leader of the free world?” Donald Trump’s initial response to the question was, “This was your choice of a question?” The next question from UK reporter Tom ??? was “Mr. President, you said you’d help us with a Brexit trade deal. You’ve said — you said you’d help us with Brexit trade deal, you said you’d stand by us with NATO, but how can the British prime minister believe you? Because you have been known in the past to change your position on things. And also (inaudible) it’s a question to both of you. People are fascinated to know how you’re going to get along with each other, you’re so different; the hard-working daughter (inaudible), the brash TV extrovert. Have you found anything in common personally yet?” The first part of the question basically calls Trump a liar and asks why anyone should believe him. The second, while admittedly kind of a softball, also has a nice dig in there insinuating Trump is not a hard worker. Both of these questions reflect how real journalism is meant to be done.