For Trump, 'chief critic' is part of the job description

Air Force One had a particularly stellar passenger manifest when it took off from Des Moines at 9:11 p.m. on July 3 to bring President Trump back to Washington. Joining him on board were four Cabinet officers, all four members of Iowa's House delegation, four top White House staffers, and the U.S. ambassador to NATO. It was the perfect chance for face time with the president—one hour and 48 minutes in close quarters, where they could make their case to him for policies they champion.

But that wasn’t to be. Trump had a different idea how to spend the time. He wanted to watch Fox News and he wanted the VIPs on board to join him. And when the plane landed, he wanted the world to know how much he enjoyed the non-stop praise lavished on him by the network.

Posting on Truth Social, he first listed off his VIP traveling companions. Then he got to the show that had so tickled him.

“And we’re watching a GREAT guy on Television—His name is Trace Gallagher, of FoxNews, a totally professional newsman who, at the same time, is highly entertaining, and very interesting. He interviewed me once in California. Keep up the GREAT work, Trace!”

David Greenberg, professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, was struck by that scene. “A lot of Cabinet members don’t get that much face time with the president. It’s an opportunity to have discussions about important issues and to press your case,” Greenberg said. “We’ve all seen photographs of other presidents using Air Force One time to go over a briefing book, do a little intense reading, or have a one-on-one conversation with the chief of staff.”

Not Trump, who sees commenting on the shows, books, stories, and interviews he comes across during his many hours watching cable news as a key part of his job. In many ways, the 47th president is the first critic-in-chief to sit in the White House.

To be sure, every president since George Washington has privately vented about press coverage of his administration. Some have shown their displeasure publicly. But all tried to stay above the fray, often claiming against all evidence that they really don't read the criticism or watch the coverage.

Trump doesn’t pretend.

In the last month alone, he has used his Truth Social platform to tout seven books, praise 10 TV interviewers, and promote reports from nine news organizations. On the flip side, he has savaged three newspapers, mocked four networks, called for multiple firings, criticized one book’s author, attacked the Pulitzer prizes, ripped into three late-night TV hosts, and broken with one-time supporter Tucker Carlson.

For Trump, there is no biting his tongue. His criticisms are raw, sometimes angry. His praise is unreserved, often gushing. It's also unusually public by presidential standards.

Past presidential endorsements have typically been offhand, even accidental. In late 1984, Ronald Reagan called The Hunt for Red October, a new book by the then-unknown Tom Clancy, either “my kind of yarn” or “a perfect yarn” (accounts differ). Sales soared. Eight years later, George H.W. Bush was seen reading The Pelican Brief on a vacation. Again, sales took off.

Just this month, Trump praised books by Salena Zito (“a powerful new book”); Newt Gingrich (“the talk of DC”); Michael Flynn (“fantastic ... inspiring ... Get your copy today!”); Gianno Caldwell “GET THIS BOOK NOW!”); David Mamet (“Get his book, NOW!”); Joe Concha (“an incredible new book”); and Clay Travis (“Preorder your copy today!”).

But it's news coverage on television and in print that occupies most of his attention.

There are those he likes: Sean Hannity (“Everybody should watch.… He really gets it!”); Gregg Jarrett (“the GREAT Gregg Jarrett”); T.J. McCormack on NewsMax (“He really knows his ‘stuff’!”); Fox & Friends Weekend (“FANTASTIC! Absolutely killing the Fake News Network’s Morning Shows!”); USA Today columnist Nicole Russell (“Thank you USA TODAY. So nice!”); and Laura Ingraham (“great interview”).

Trump also watches—and grades—the TV appearances of his underlings. Deputy press secretary Harrison Fields (“Great job ... young and talented”); Lara Trump (“my wonderful daughter in law”); Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (“One of the greatest, most professional and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen!”); and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (“Great job”).

But he reserves the real passion—expressed through lots of capital letters and exclamation marks—for those who displease him:

The Wall Street Journal (“useless rag ... fully disgraced ... pile of garbage.... I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper ... false, malicious, defamatory story ... sources that probably don’t even exist ... Disgusting and Filthy Rag ... No Idea what my thoughts are”); Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel (“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”); Dan Alexander of Forbes Magazine (“a terribly untalented writer ... Forbes doesn’t even try to get things right”); CNN’s Natasha Bertrand (“FIRE NATASHA!”) and Abby Phillip (“absolutely no idea what she is talking about, strictly 3d rate ... LOSERS ALL!!!); CNN and The New York Times (“SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!! ... BAD AND SICK PEOPLE ... sleazebags”); CNN again (“SO DISGUSTING AND INCOMPETENT, SOME OF THE DUMBEST ANCHORS IN THE BUSINESS!); Fox’s Jessica Tarlov (“a disgrace to television broadcasting ... nobody wants to listen to her”); Tucker Carlson (“kooky”); PBS and NPR (“ATROCIOUS ... WHERE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR WERE WASTED ... worse than CNN & MSDNC put together ... monstrosity”); Voice of America (“a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER”); and author Michael Wolff (“a Third Rate Reporter, who is laughed at even by the scoundrels of the Fake News”).

None of these "scoundrels" had measured up to the standard set for Trump by Trace Gallagher in the Fox show aired on Air Force One that night. The show was non-stop gushing over what the host called “Trump’s big, beautiful week.”

The better to keep an eye on such shows, when Trump became president in 2017 he had two additional televisions brought to his bedroom and installed a 60-inch flat-screen TV in his private White House dining room. His heavy TV viewing is a break from the three most recent presidents.

George W. Bush and Barack Obama watched little non-sports television. Joe Biden watched the morning shows while working out, but said, “I don’t watch much television.”

The only president to approach Trump’s obsessive viewing was Lyndon B. Johnson, who became president in the year television overtook newspapers as the primary news source. Johnson famously had three sets installed in the Oval Office so he could watch all three networks.

Greenberg said that what separates Trump from Johnson or other presidents who were heavy consumers of news is his eagerness to publicly review what he sees. “It’s the commenting on it that is different,” he said. Richard Nixon, he said, “sounded off with his aides, but the public persona was different. Trump just totally lets it all out for everyone to see.” He said Trump has embraced “the role of television critic-in-chief” even more than he did in his first term.

Presidential historian Tevi Troy, a senior fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute and a former White House aide to George W. Bush, said said Trump always “saw himself as kind of a general critic.” Before becoming president, he said, “he might say it on the Howard Stern Show or on Fox & Friends."

"Now, Twitter gives him the capacity to weigh in on everything,” said Troy, who examined popular culture at the White House in What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted.

No one should be surprised, said Greenberg. “His unfiltered opinions—sometimes positive, more often negative and angry and harsh—are part of who he is.”