Trump avoids being recorded because truth is his 'adversary', former White House stenographer says

'It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth'

A former White House stenographer has said in Donald Trump avoids being recorded in many meetings because of “his adversary: the truth”.

Beck Dorey-Stein worked at the White House under Barack Obama from 2012 into the first month of Mr Trump’s term, when she resigned.

“It’s clear that White House stenographers do not serve his administration, but rather his adversary: the truth,” Ms Dorey-Stein wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Times.

She said she and fellow stenographers were explicitly told to “keep our microphones far away from [Mr Trump’s] face” by then deputy press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who is now First Lady Melania Trump’s spokesperson.

Ms Dorey-Stein also said the president routinely requested that stenographers not be present when he spoke to members of the media.

She recalled a few particular incidents with NBC News’s Lester Holt and former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.

The former stenographer noted this was a different procedure than what Mr Obama employed.

In her five years working for his administration, she explained “off-the-record discussions with reporters happened after work hours — not for an hour in the middle of the work day, and certainly not before an interview” as it apparently did with Mr O’Reilly and Mr Trump when they met privately in the Oval Office.

“When a president spoke on the record with a reporter, his staff made sure to have a stenographer present so there could be an official White House transcript, just in case the reporter came out with an inaccurate quotation,” she said about Mr Obama and his staff.

She described her job in previous administrations: “We carried a microphone and two recorders at all times, and let them run until the last reporter had left the room, just in case somebody yelled a question over his shoulder with one foot out the door.”

Ms Grisham told Ms Dorey-Stein’s colleagues “there would be video” and so they would not be as needed during this administration.

Ms Dorey-Stein said the "irony" of the situation was that Mr Trump has frequently hit out at the media for its inaccurate reporting about his actions and words - using the insult "fake news" 241 times on Twitter.

Mr Trump recently came under heavy criticism for trying to correct what he perceived as a transcript error during his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.

He claimed he said “wouldn’t” instead of what the whole world heard- “I don’t see any reason why... it would be Russia” - when answering a question about holding the Kremlin accountable for allegedly interfering in the 2016 US election.

He also held a private meeting with Mr Putin and there is no indication any other American except an interpreter was in the room with them nor was there any stenographer or recording device to make sure all sides have an accurate account of what happened.

Ms Dorey-Stein’s insider look comes on the same day it was revealed Mr Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, had recorded a private conversation with the president. The pair had discussed an alleged payment made to Karen McDougal, a woman claiming to have had an affair with Mr Trump in 2006.