Why Trump acting as his own press secretary is such a problem

No longer content to anonymously call reporters under the name John Barron, the president is now his own publicist

Donald Trump arrives at Los Angeles International airport to attend a fundraiser (Evan Vucci/AP)

The White House has not held a traditional press briefing in six months. One-hundred-and-ninety-one days, to be precise.

The current press secretary and communications director, Stephanie Grisham, is barely seen. Unlike her numerous predecessors, she has stayed out of the spotlight since moving from representing Melania Trump to the president.

In this new era, Donald Trump – no longer content to anonymously call reporters under the name John Barron – is now his own publicist and press secretary, touting imaginary accomplishments on the regular and bestowing himself with praise. By cutting out the middleman, he’s made sure we all get an unfiltered insight into his thoughts and daily activities. Whether it’s his overactive Twitter account, erratic press conferences from the White House lawn, or even his hate-filled rallies, the media is given an unprecedented amount of content to work with by Donald J Trump. You might, at first glance, think that that’s a good thing.

But there’s an inevitable problem with all this exposure. The longer the press room stands gathering dust, the fewer opportunities reporters have to get their specific questions answered. There is little chance of a follow-up question to a 3am tweet, and even less chance of fact-checking a rally chant. Yes, we are given ample opportunity to repeat the president’s message, but he is closing out our right to probe.

As a journalist – particularly one who closely monitors breaking US news and social media trends day by day – I sorely miss those official press briefings. The news agenda is so often steered towards what Trump is tweeting, whereas news conferences used to give us a chance to glean answers on a breadth of topics, as well as putting the White House under the spotlight. When the president moves the spotlight himself, you get a very different effect.

With Sean Spicer on Dancing With The Stars, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders on her way to Fox News, we may well be counting the days until Stephanie Grisham is announced as the next panellist on The View. And then we’ll really be on our own, with Donald Trump himself the final person left to tell us what’s going on. Let’s hope it doesn’t go that way.

Yours,

Lucy Anna Gray

Assistant audience editor