Media Outlets Sue Over President Trump's White House Press Ban

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

SPEAKER_2 (0:08)

You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

Tim Stenovec (0:15)

CNN, MS Now and Politico filed lawsuits seeking to allow their journalists to enter the White House grounds days after President Trump revoked their access, turning to the courts in their fight over constitutional protections for the press. We wanted to talk to Tim O'Brien about this because he understands the media.

Carol Massar (0:30)

He does.

Tim Stenovec (0:31)

And he understands the president.

Carol Massar (0:33)

Yeah.

Tim Stenovec (0:33)

He's senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. He's the author of Trump Nation, The Art of Being, The Donald. He joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio.

Carol Massar (0:41)

Welcome, welcome.

Tim O'Brien (0:41)

It's always good to be here, Tim.

Tim Stenovec (0:43)

So there are a few things that have happened in recent days. One is the Friday decree from the president. Then we learned about this app.

Carol Massar (0:52)

Yes, the White House app.

Tim Stenovec (0:53)

This White House app that I'm just wondering about not necessarily precedent here, but your view on access, the way that Americans are supposed to get this information and what the president is doing at this very moment. Why now?

Tim O'Brien (1:11)

I think he's trying to stop things he can't control. It's not just the media. He's mired in a conflict in Iran that he started, that he can't extricate himself from. He is trying to manage fiscal policy in an unforgiving interest rate environment.

Then he's got a flow of information around him that's not flattering.

I think he's sending people like Scott Bessent out to say, this is what we're doing to jawbone around interest rates in this ill-fated effort to bring down the 30-year bond as if any mere mortal could do that. And that every day we hear that the Iran War is about to end and it doesn't end. And that the economy is doing wonderfully and everyone is happy with his presidency even though the media is reporting otherwise. And it's not because the media is dreaming it up. It's not because the media has an agenda. I think it's because the media is reporting reality and he doesn't like it. And so this is just the latest effort by the president to try to claw back reality.

Carol Massar (2:12)

What do you make, Tim, because you've been around this table or talked with us and, now, Donald Trump is a master of media, that he's all of a sudden kind of losing control, it feels like. Why?

Tim O'Brien (2:23)

Well, I think he's a master at securing attention and he's a master at diverting attention. I actually don't think he has a particularly sophisticated long-term strategy about courting the media. He just courts the media like an ardent lover who gets angry when he's spurned and is very happy when the love comes back his way.

But other than that, he's not particularly sophisticated about it. He's been doing it a long time because he's sort of the center of the carnival, and he enjoys putting on a cardiac for people. And the media, I think sometimes, shamefully, will just give air and time to someone who's a carnival barker. And that's going on with him since he was a developer and then a reality TV star. That's all of a fit.

Carol Massar (3:09)

So there's the president. And I think it's safe to say that even while the second administration is very different from the first administration, we kind of know who this individual is on some level. But I think one of the things that we've talked a lot about is everyone around him who seems to kind of jump on board and willing to, I think it's safe to say, take advantage of a situation. We've done reporting about stocks and so on and so forth and investments, not just by the president but members of his administration. What does that say about people more largely?

I know we knew the guardrails weren't going to be there, but what does that say?

Tim O'Brien (3:45)

Well, I think in the first administration, there were people around him who felt that they could carry out acts of public service or policy-making that were in the interests of the American people, and that it was important for them to be there in order to further those goals. I think that no one came back for round two with the idea that they could do that.

But I do think what they thought is either they could ride Trump's coattails to pad their own resumes or to pad their own wallets. I don't think there was any... And then I think there were sort of hard right movement MAGA people who also believed in defenestrating most of the pillars of the federal government and other acts that they would consider to be policy acts.