President Trump held two press conferences on his first two days in office, highlighting the contrast between him and former President Joseph R. Biden, who largely avoided press questions amid scrutiny of his mental acuity.
Just hours after he was inaugurated on Monday, Mr. Trump held an unscripted, freewheeling press conference in the Oval Office as he signed several executive orders.
On Tuesday, he held his second press conference in his many days. After announcing billions of dollars in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S., Mr. Trump again fielded reporters’ questions.
During his 60-minute press conference Monday night, Mr. Trump even suggested that answering reporters’ questions was part of ushering in a new era of access and transparency.
“Did Biden ever do news conferences like this?” Mr. Trump asked reporters, criticizing his predecessor’s refusal to engage with the media.
In the 100 years since President Coolidge took office, only Presidents Nixon and Reagan held fewer news conferences than Mr. Biden.
Mr. Biden averaged roughly nine press conferences per year, far below Mr. Trump, who averaged 22 per year during his first term, and President Obama, who averaged 20 per year during his eight years in office, according to data from The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The majority of Mr. Biden’s press conferences were brief interactions with reporters as he fielded a question or two before boarding Air Force One.
After the Democrats’ overwhelming electoral loss, Mr. Biden essentially dropped out of sight. He spent his final weeks sticking to prepared remarks, avoiding unscripted appearances. Mr. Biden is the first president in decades not to hold a formal press conference before leaving office.
Mr. Biden also became testy with reporters during the rare occasions he did take questions. Earlier this month, he snapped at a reporter who asked him about Mr. Trump’s plans to end birthright citizenship.
“I might be the oldest president, but I know more world leaders than any one of you have ever met in your whole goddamn life,” he said.
Peter Loge, who teaches Political Communications at George Washington University, said Mr. Trump is simply being himself rather than trying to underscore his differences with Mr. Biden.
“This is Trump being Trump,” he said. “He likes bantering with the press and putting on a show.”
In contrast, Mr. Loge said Mr. Biden spent the majority of his political career as the senator from Delaware, a state with one major newspaper and little press attention until he joined the Obama administration as vice president.
“He never sought to be high-profile and when he did, he wasn’t great at it. Biden is not terribly performative,” Mr. Loge said.
Mr. Trump on Monday took a more congenial approach. He joked with reporters that he hadn’t yet looked to see whether Mr. Biden left a letter for him, a tradition among departing presidents.
“Thank you very much. I may have not seen this for months,” he told reporters after opening a drawer in the Resolute Desk and finding the letter.
He also held forth on a wide variety of topics. Mr. Trump began musing over the possibility of sending military special forces into Mexico to fight drug cartels, saying it “could happen.”
He continued to answer dozens of questions, saying that North Korea has “tremendous condo capability” and “beautiful things” could be done to transform war-torn Gaza.
The president also took questions about delaying the TikTok ban, the possibility of gaining control of Greenland and expressing doubt that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will hold.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.