President Donald Trump says he is “the most transparent president” in U.S. History. The numbers back him up.
According to a memo obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, Trump has participated in a staggering total of 759 press-facing events during his second term.
The length of these 759 events spanned 21,058 minutes, or approximately 351 hours, according to the memo.
Trump also offered press remarkable opportunity to ask questions of the leader of the free world, with Trump taking questions from the press at 474 of those events.
From available data, the length of events where the president took questions from the press totaled 12,178 minutes, or approximately 203 hours or eight-and-a-half days.
The unprecedented access to his administration’s work and his policy and political opinions Trump has offered to the press – whether or not they choose to cover it – far surpasses access granted by other presidents, including his immediate predecessor Joe Biden.
Biden rarely addressed the media or took questions, yet received little pushback from a compliant establishment media that feted him – including puff pieces on his favorite ice cream flavor – until breaking sharply from the Democrat nominee after his disastrous debate performance in June 2024.
When taking questions on rare occasions, Biden often resorted to calling on reporters from a pre-approved list compiled by his staff, complete with reporter name pronunciation guides and summaries of their questions and how to respond.
As pointed out by a White House fact sheet, during the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term, the Media Research Center found that 92% of coverage by mainstream outlets was negative compared to nearly 60% positive coverage during the same period under Biden.
CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, three outlets who filled in the gaps to offer consistent praise for the reclusive Biden while later attacking the transparent Trump, are no longer welcome at the White House after Trump revoked their hard passes to access White House grounds last week.
Countless other outlets across the political spectrum also do not have access to the White House grounds, a fact which has not been previously characterized by the establishment media as a violation of the First Amendment.
Yet those three outlets have sued the Trump administration for a restoration of their hard passes, arguing they are guaranteed continued special access many other outlets do not receive and claiming Trump’s actions somehow violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press.
Vice President JD Vance dismantled their argument Monday.
“They can still report on the Trump White House. They can still get the public reports. They can still, of course, talk to people in the administration and outside the administration,” Vance said. “What the president has said is, we’re not going to give you special access inside the White House.”
Vance pointed out that the establishment media did not cry foul when Breitbart News was denied special access during prior administrations.
In stated solidarity, other outlets including Fox News have stated they will not cover Trump’s remarks or even use their audio or video equipment as a component of the press pool – actions which undermine their claims to prioritize transparency in covering the presidency.
Press events catalogued in the memo obtained by Breitbart News include remarks, sprays, gaggles, press conferences, press briefing, and gaggling while boarding, deboarding, or aboard Air Force One or Marine One.
Bradley Jaye is Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye or email him at [email protected].
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