A former communications staffer in Donald Trump's first administration mocked his complaints about the lack of coverage of his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The 80-year-old president banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, and the rest of press pool boycotted their own coverage in solidarity while a legal challenge played out, and Trump reportedly wondered where the cameras were Thursday when he and Xi arrived – which came hours before the media outlets were reinstated under court order.
"I think that the White House is pushing the envelopeto see what they can get awaywith," said Sarah Matthews, who served as deputy press secretary in Trump's first presidency. "We've seenthem before, defy court orders, so it doesn't surprise me thatthey were dragging their feeton this, and they didn't wantto let these reporters backonto the White House campus.Eventually they did so, butthey did so after reporters hadto go multiple times to the White House campus and try tobe let in."
"I just have tosay that it's hilarious to see President Trump thencomplaining about the lack ofmedia coverage surrounding his China summit and Xi's visit, butthis is a completely unforcederror on his part. The White House loves to say that President Trump is his own bestmessenger, but he's often hisown worst enemy, too, and he picked the timing of when toimpose this ban on MS NOW, onCNN and on Politico, and thencomplains about the lack ofmedia coverage."
Trump's second presidency has been defined by unforced errors, Matthews said.
"This follows a pattern ofunforced errors in this secondadministration," she said. "You look at histariffs that he imposed andthe effect that they've had onthe economy, worsening anaffordability crisis that wewere already grappling with.You look at his war of choicewith Iran and the effect thatthat's had. Now we're seeingrecord high gas and dieselprices as a result, and all ofthis heading into the midtermelections. It doesn't bode wellfor this administration and for Republicans when they have toanswer for things like thiskind of authoritarian behaviorof Trump trying to restrict American outlets from coming inwhile simultaneously letting Chinese outlets in to cover theevent, it just was kind of mindblowing."