Trump took more than 1,000 questions in his first month

There were less than three hours left in his first month back in office when President Trump leaned against the doorway to the press cabin on Air Force One and took a question from Caroline McKee, a Fox News White House producer. “Sir,” McKee asked, “do you think D.C. should govern itself, or do you think that governing of District of Columbia should go back to Congress?”

It was a routine question that elicited real news and some headlines. But it was much more than routine in the scope of White House history. It was a landmark moment in which the president blew past all his predecessors in his willingness—nay, eagerness—to take on all questions.

McKee's was the 1,000th question Trump fielded in his first month. The first came inside the U.S. Capitol, less than an hour after taking his oath of office, when he was asked if he had any reaction “to the pardons President Biden did at the last minute.” The last question—No. 1,009—came more than 3,000 feet above North Carolina at 9:14 p.m. Wednesday night as he returned to Washington after five days in Florida.

It took Trump only three days to eclipse the 141 questions former President Biden took in his first month; Trump took 164 questions by the end of his third day. That day, he also went past the known count of 161 questions in former President Obama’s first month in 2009, though that carries an asterisk because transcripts don't exist for most of the interviews he granted.

It took Trump only one more day to blow past the questions he took in his first month in 2017—200 questions by the end of his fourth day compared to 199 for his first term’s entire first month.

“These numbers speak for themselves. They probably don’t need a lot of analysis,” said David Greenberg, professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. “It clearly shows a comfort level with being his own spokesman. … He enjoys it. He thinks of himself as a persuasive personality, or he enjoys the attention—or both. And he may not be wrong. He has demonstrated that he can command a following for the way he puts his ideas.”

At the White House, the number of questions the president has taken is a point of pride. “Over the past month, the president has taken questions from the press—all of you—nearly every single day, sometimes on multiple occasions,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt, adding, “President Trump set the tone on this approach immediately when he took more than 12 times the questions in his first few hours in office as Joe Biden did in his entire first week.”

Those questions have mostly come in settings controlled by the president—at executive-order signings in the Oval Office, on the South Lawn boarding Marine One, or aboard Air Force One. The questions have come from accredited White House correspondents who pressed him on his policies, actions, and statements. But Leavitt’s policy to grant credentials to those who are more supportive of the president has permitted some less-than-probing questions as well.

At a Feb. 13 joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among those in the East Room was Jordan Conradson of the far-right Gateway Pundit. He asked Modi if he was “more confident” now with Trump as president “that there will be peace through strength and you will have a successful partnership with the United States, versus with Biden’s incompetence and weakness over the last four years?”

Trump openly laughed over his good luck and swooped in to answer for Modi, dismissing President Biden’s tenure as one of “gross incompetence.” In his story, Conradson wrote that Trump “stepped up and knocked it out of the park.”

Six days later, the president took questions from attendees at an investors’ conference in Miami. The eight questions included which three people would he like to have dinner with, what is the best advice he ever received, what would he like to do if he had a year off, and what three words would he use to describe the United States. He was particularly proud of his response to the latter question, choosing "love," "respect," and "strength" as his three words. “That may have been the toughest question, actually,” he said. “Do you think Joe Biden could have done that? I don’t think so.”

Aides said he relishes combat with a press corps they see as lacking credibility with the MAGA base. They also say the new approach reflects what he learned from his first term.

That lesson is one that George H.W. Bush learned on his first full day as president in 1989. With reporters in the Oval Office with him for the first time, Bush started answering a question after the television lights had been turned off to signal it was time for the reporters to leave. Press secretary Marlin Fitzwater interrupted him to ask for the lights to be turned back on. “Am I violating any rules here, Marlin?” a concerned Bush asked. “They’re your rules, sir,” Fitzwater said. The president beamed, enjoying his new power. “Oh, I set the rules. OK.”

Now, Trump sets the rules. On his fourth day in office in 2017, he chided reporters in the Oval Office, telling them, “You’re not supposed to ask questions.” Now, he invites reporters to pelt him with as many as they have.

“It’s definitely a case of presidential learning,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, professor emerita of political science at Towson University and the leading scholar on White House press operations. Eight years ago, she recalled, Trump gave more formal speeches and frequently called in to Fox & Friends to make his points.

“He learned that that didn’t get him anything. He was just talking to the choir, and he needed to get to a broader public,” Kumar said. “And to do that, he’s using the Oval Office. People stop when they see a president in the Oval Office talking on their television. They want to know what he’s saying.”

A sign of that is the lectern with the presidential seal that aides carry into the Oval Office for some of his Q&A sessions. Set up in front of the newly hung portrait of Ronald Reagan, the lectern lends even more gravitas to his answers. “The result,” said Kumar, “is people know who he is and what he’s up to. It’s hard to miss him.”

His habits have also altered the balance between the Oval Office and the press secretary. In 2019, Trump was scornful when asked about having a team handle White House communications. “But here’s the thing,” he said. “I don’t have teams. Everyone is talking about teams. I’m the team.”

Despite that, Leavitt remains important in the White House. When she is not doing daily briefings, she often appears on Fox News shows and then takes questions in informal gaggles on the White House driveway.

Greenberg said Trump’s preference for question-taking over policy speeches is possible at a time when he is not trying to move Congress.

“A lot of presidential communication is designed at either moving Congress directly or moving public opinion in order to move Congress,” he said. “He may feel that with his very executive-branch-centered agenda in these early weeks that it doesn’t matter.”

George Edwards, the Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies emeritus at Texas A&M University, said the flaw in Trump’s approach is shown in his declining public approval numbers.

“He’s getting a lot of attention. He’s certainly dominating the news and setting the agenda,” Edwards said. “But he’s not convincing people, even in a honeymoon period, that he’s doing the right thing.” He added, “He can answer questions ‘til the cows come home. But people will still ask, ‘What are you doing about the economy?’”