


CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins said the media’s accessibility to President Donald Trump is greatly different from past presidents and that he recognizes “the value of a camera and a microphone.”
Collins said “a typical president,” such as Joe Biden, would not turn a swearing-in ambassador ceremony into a newsworthy event. However, she said Trump will take a ceremony such as this and take questions from the press for up to 45 minutes, turning it into a press conference.
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“I always keep a running list of questions on my phone because you never know when you’re going to run into him or when he’s going to start taking questions, and so you can’t just have one or two,” Collins said in a discussion with banker Jason Tartick. “You have to have, like, 10 ready to go.”
Collins also compared Trump’s accessibility to former President Barack Obama, who would “almost never” respond to shouted questions in the Oval Office. She said Trump “upended that” when he entered the White House and would “embrace the media” as he did before entering politics.
“Most politicians are not very press-savvy — it kind of depends on who it is,” Collins said. “I think Trump always understood the value of a camera and a microphone.”
Collins said she did not cover politics much until Trump ran for president, when “even the Trump people” were not expecting him to win the 2016 election. She said she usually covered popular culture and celebrities, and her boss told her she would cover his presidency because a celebrity was elected president.
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In February, the Trump administration announced it would take over assignment duties for press coverage. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House Correspondents Association has “long dictated” which reporters get to ask the president questions, but this duty now falls to the White House press team.
Leavitt also said “legacy outlets” will continue to be part of the press pool as new ones are added.