The pretence of Trump running the most transparent White House ever is over

New York: The Trump administration likes to pride itself on running “the most transparent administration in history”. And until this week, it had a semblance of a point.

Donald Trump, who grew his profile by starring on The Apprentice, was the television president. No president loved TV more, and surely no president was more adept at deploying it for his own benefit.

But say what you will, access to Trump was unparalleled. He welcomed cameras into the Oval Office almost every day, and spoke so often that even members of the media wished for less.

Even this correspondent, as a foreigner representing an overseas media outlet, was able to show up to the South Lawn of the White House and question the US president every time he departed on the Marine One helicopter.

It was a marked improvement in access, especially compared to Joe Biden – who, amid his evident decline, was hidden away from the media.

Trump loved – and still loves – pointing out this contrast. But his boasting always missed a key point: whatever access Trump may have granted, it was to a diminishing pool of serious journalists, and to an increasing crop of partisan hacks.

From the start, the press office run by Karoline Leavitt granted pole position in the White House press briefing room to so-called “new media” outlets – almost always right-wing podcasters and influencers whose querying of the president was a riff on “why are you so great?” and “why are the Democrats so awful?”

Slowly but surely, these charlatans took over. The White House assumed control of the daily press “pool” – the small team that gets to go into the Oval Office – and gave more and more slots to the right-wing fringe media. Their inane questions would not elicit new information, but gave Trump a free kick to promote his agenda and disparage his political enemies.

Earlier this year, pool positions for foreign journalists were largely abolished. The excuse for this was a rivalry between two competing foreign media groups – which did exist – but the cumulative impact was to exclude the foreign press from the most powerful office in the world, and to give those spots to yet more right-wing goons.

Now, Trump has banished CNN, Politico and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), some of the few remaining serious media outlets able to question the president on matters of import. Other news organisations are boycotting Trump in solidarity, a commendable move, but one that ultimately reduces the presence of capable reporters in the room.

Solidarity does not come naturally to the American press corps. Journalists rarely back each other up, and are usually more than happy to move on to some other issue rather than demand answers on the issue of the day. This time, however, even Fox News has joined the resistance, which should tell you all you need to know.

But the reality is the White House press corps increasingly resembles something out of Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang, not Washington. It’s great to have “access”, and for the president to speak endlessly – but if the only ones listening are compromised, it matters little.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.