Trump nears 500 press interactions in his second term, surpassing former President Biden

President Donald Trump has significantly surpassed his predecessor, Joe Biden, in media engagement from the same point in his first term. According to new data shared with The Post, Trump had at least 493 exchanges with journalists, including interviews and events during the first year of his second term as compared to 246 over the first 365 days of his first term.

Trump averaged more than two media sessions per workday as he revamped foreign policy, trade, immigration, tax, and healthcare policies, as compared to President Joe Biden’s first year rate of 1.1 media events per day and the former president’s own first term.

In line with previous comparisons, Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush averaged 0.9 daily interactions in their first years. Bill Clinton notched 1.4 per day, while George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had 0.6 and 0.5 per day, respectively.

The president has made the Oval Office highly accessible to the press starting on his very first day back in power. He has answered press questions at 95 events in the Oval Office. This figure marks a massive increase from the 27 such events during each of Biden’s first year and the start of Trump’s first term.

In this connection, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said, “President Trump is the most transparent and accessible president in American history. Trump takes unrestricted questions from the legacy media and posts directly from his Truth Social account on the most important issues facing our nation every single day.”

“The American people have never had a more direct and authentic relationship with a president of the United States than they have with President Trump.” she further added. 

Meanwhile Meghan Hayes, the former director of message planning in the Biden White House, rebutted that Trump’s copious exchanges run the risk of turning off the audience when he chided CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last week for not smiling when she asked about the Epstein case. Additionally, Hayes said that the American people deserve a president who gives honest answers, arguing that it doesn't matter how many times you interact with the press if it is all lies and hateful rhetoric.