The White House Office of the Press Secretary is scared of trying to explain President Donald Trump's agenda, according to one prominent correspondent who spoke to The Washington Post.
“He [Trump] makes it up every few seconds, so they’re afraid to do anything. . . . It’s not a place where being a freewheeling thinker is valued and rewarded. It’s all about the whims of one man,” the correspondent, who wished to remain anonymous, explained.
The Washington Post said that Trump’s White House often refuses to respond to stories -- even major ones -- and doesn’t even bother to say “no comment.”
“I don’t know why that is. I don’t take it personally. But it’s a lost opportunity on their part to get their side of the story out,” remarked New York Times reporter Peter Baker.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, meanwhile, now regularly goes several weeks without holding a briefing. She said last year she was doing less press briefings because Trump was speaking directly to journalists.
"President Trump thinks like he's his own press secretary and he's the one that ought to be the spokesman every day, and I'm not even sure he likes the idea he's got someone called the spokesman or a press secretary," Mike McCurry, who was press secretary for Bill Clinton, told NPR last year.
The White House press office has also reportedly shrunk down to half of its size from last year.
