President Donald Trump’s personal cell phone number has been “making the rounds” among reporters in recent week and the president – a “longtime attention hog” – can’t stop picking up the phone, Slate reported on Wednesday.
Trump’s new habit of candidly speaking with reporters who’ve gotten ahold of his information was first reported on earlier this week by Semafor, which revealed that the president often puts callers “on speaker in front of a large group” and “has fun messing with them.”
In an analysis published Wednesday by Slate, however, politics writer Ian Prasad Philbrick questioned the value of Trump’s inconsistent statements to cold-calling reporters.
“Interviewing a sitting president has long conferred prestige, which might well feel paramount amid shrinking audiences and newsroom layoffs. But in this case, reporters seem to be herding without much to show for it,” Philbrick wrote.
“Some observers have concluded that landing a phone interview with Trump is effectively pointless, an invitation to get played by a president who — much as he did back when he was just a go-to quote for New York City tabloid reporters — treats his interactions with the press like a game.”
Philbrick noted that as of Sunday, Trump had given nine different answers to cold-calling reporters as to when the U.S. war against Iran might end, telling one outlet “two or three days,” and another, in a “six-week period.”
“Much of what Trump is telling the American people about the war — through journalists, online, and in public — is contradictory,” Philbrick wrote.
“Inconsistencies and flip-flops are usually a sign of a president trying to hide something. But in this case, each self-negating reportorial nugget, public waffle, and social media screed helps illuminate a basic reality about the president’s plan for Iran: namely, that he doesn’t seem to have one.”