The White House press office announced on Thursday that President Donald Trump has logged 21,058 minutes at events open to the press since his second inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. That’s roughly 351 hours across 759 events, with 474 involving direct reporter questions and more than 47 hours of pure Q&A. I’ve spent 30 years in institutional investment management, where opacity has a cost and disclosure isn’t optional. The comparison to his predecessor isn’t flattering to the predecessor.
Former President Joe Biden’s communications strategy was a masterwork of managed absence. Campaign from his basement. Govern from behind a rotating cast of press secretaries and Cabinet officials. Deliver prepared remarks from approved notes. Only take questions from selected outlets. Whatever you do, never submit to the extended, adversarial questioning that might reveal what millions of Americans were forced to confront after the June 2024 debate: that the 46th president’s cognitive capacity had been degrading in the most powerful office on Earth. The legacy media didn’t just look the other way. They handed him the curtain.
