Donald Trump is shown on video asking Fox News host Lawrence Jones to gush about the returning president’s first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, moments after it ended. (Watch the clip below.)
“Lawrence, say we did a great job, please,” Trump said as other reporters filed out. “Say it was unbelievable!”
The video, shared by The Associated Press, shows the president flanked on one side by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, as Trump engages the current “Fox & Friends” co-host Jones.
While Trump’s urging appeared to be in the context of banter, it did reflect his even cozier relationship to conservative media as his administration puts the squeeze on freedom of the press.
This week, press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the administration would dictate which reporters could cover the president. That allocation of journalists has traditionally been handled by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
The shift enabled Trump to exclude HuffPost, a staunch critic of the president, on Wednesday and has increased the presence of administration-friendly right-wing media, Mediaite noted.
Also on Wednesday he pledged to sue reporters who use the common practice of anonymous quotes in unfavorable stories or books about him.
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In another attempt to intimidate the fourth estate, Trump previously banned AP for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” as he ordered.
Fast forward to 1:04:25 for the interaction with Jones: