Will Donald Trump ever talk to the press again? It’s been four months since his last press conference, and there’s no sign that he plans to hold one anytime soon. During the campaign, he barely spoke to anyone aside from Sean Hannity. In the two weeks since he won the election, it’s been even worse: Trump has been all but invisible aside from his periodic Twitter outbursts.
It’s a good question how this is going to work out. Press conferences have become fairly rare events in the past few decades, and they’re less useful than they used to be anyway. Presidents control them tightly and then filibuster every question as a way of cutting down the amount of interaction they’re forced to have. Obama did this as much as any president in recent history.
Still, Trump probably can’t get rid of press conferences completely. When the prime minister of Latveria comes to visit, you pretty much have to hold a joint press conference at some point. Beyond that, though, who knows? Maybe he’ll decide to convert the briefing room back into an indoor swimming pool and tell the press to take a hike. Alternatively, he might build a brand new, gold-encrusted briefing room and decide to act as his own press secretary. With Trump, there’s no telling.