His daily inbox is a tool for the president to reward allies and punish foes — and a weapon for those trying to influence him.
He slams the mainstream media as dishonest liars. He calls journalists the “enemy of the people.” He rages at the television hosts he watches during his “Executive Time.” He hasn’t held a traditional White House press conference for almost 10 months, preferring to go around the “fake news” filter he perceives as hopelessly biased and blast out 280-character proclamations on Twitter instead.
There’s an official process for submitting articles or other material to Trump: Go to the staff secretary’s office for approval and inclusion in his daily reading file — an inch-or-two thick file folder containing authorized copies of the latest coverage.“In the Wild, Wild West” era, a current senior White House official recalled, “people would put articles on the president’s desk that were things he didn’t need to see, things that were meant to gin him up or get him mad at somebody.
Under Mulvaney, as one senior White House official put it, the process is now “looser [but] in a productive way.”Every morning before dawn, according to current and former White House officials, Trump has four daily newspapers — the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — delivered to the White House residence.
“He’s not a fan of the New York Times or the Washington Post but he never misses a day reading them,” said a person close to the White House. “And if he doesn’t read them that day, he’ll put them in a box and read them a few days later.” Rep. Matt Gaetz , a close Trump ally, recalled that he’s been with the president on Air Force One as he read newspapers and signed specific articles, often making notes in the margins before directing them to be sent.
Trump wields his daily print clipping ritual as both carrot and stick, praising those who praise him and torching his critics. His outbox is also an internal management tool, a tactic to buck up sagging staff morale during a tumultuous first term. “The only way he could ever compliment people was to sign a newspaper article, ‘Great job.’ He’d never compliment you to your face,” one former senior administration official complained.
The president also has been known to send autographed printouts to members of his Cabinet, to personal friends, and even to the journalists who cover him. When an article contains contested information, the staff secretary’s office puts that information “into context” for the president, said the official. It’s also the staff secretary’s job to tell the chief of staff, press team and appropriate policy staffers what Trump is receiving.
“It’s actually a very effective way to clue him into an issue,” a current White House official said. “One thing I would do if I was heading up a policy council is feed him a steady diet of information on whatever issue I was keyed up on.” A senior White House official denied that, but noted that in the first year of the administration, Ivanka would sometimes share news stories with her father about colleagues she did not think were “constructive forces for good.” She would point out articles she suspected they had leaked to reporters that were hurting Trump and his agenda — after which Trump would eventually get rid of her targets, this person said.
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