Trump abruptly cancels traditional White House Christmas party for reporters

[Miles Archer]

Trump abruptly cancels traditional White House Christmas party for reporters



https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/trump-abruptly-cancels-traditional-white-house-christmas-party-reporters-fox-news/

President Donald Trump has reportedly squashed a decades-long tradition by canceling the annual White House Christmas party for members of the media.

Fox News’ Howard Kurtz reports that the Christmas party has become “a victim” of Trump’s “increasingly contentious relationship with major news organizations.”

Just because the annual media Christmas party is canceled doesn’t mean that no one in the media industry will be going to the White House for holiday festivities, however, as Kurtz reports that “selected media people generally favorable to Trump, including a few Fox News hosts” have been invited to “a full panoply of other parties this holiday season.”

Trump this year has regularly labeled the press as the “enemy of the people,” and the White House also went through a failed attempt to revoke CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s White House press pass.

[Eric J in MN]

1. This is a stupid move by Trump.

In 2000, one of the reasons George W. Bush got better coverage than Al Gore was that Bush gave reporters better food at the press conferences.

Canceling this party won’t endear Trump to reporters.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. He sure knows how to make friends and influence people...

[calimary]

49. He's a Bizarro Dale Carnegie.

[Liberal In Texas]

18. Guess he never heard of keeping friends close and enimies closer

Of course, he doesn't really have any friends. He has sycophants who would and did abandon him at the first sign of trouble for them.

[joshdawg]

27. Of course it's stupid, but

since trump is nothing more than a 6 foot 350 lb HPOS, he's still a small child with an IQ in the single digits........and he acts like it. This just proves it.

[pangaia]

38. Smart move as he is just aiming at his insane base.

They will love it.

[oberliner]

40. He doesn't want to endear himself to reporters

Except specific ones.

[catbyte]

2. Seriously, who'd really want to go anyway? Hannity & other TRUMPRAVDA propagandists

probably have their invites to private parties anyway. And who would want to be surrounded by that ghastly, creepy, "BeBest" bloody Christmas themed horror show anyway?!?

It's just another example of what a petulant toddler is currently infesting the White House. History will have a field day with that vile, despicable POS.

[True Blue American]

4. Trump has already

Lost any friends he had. Now another childish temper tantrum will make them go after him big time. When will he ever learn his bullying has lost it’s sting?

See Chuck speak on the Senate floor.

[rainin]

21. Chuck Shumer assures us in the beginning that Mitch is really his "good friend."

McConnell is a trader to this country. He never misses the opportunity to play dirty and Shumer calls him is "good friend". Not once, but with emphasis. This first 15 seconds makes me distrust him more than anything I've seen him say.

[Eyeball_Kid]

37. Schumer plays the long game. He knows who McConnell is.

Schumer won't shed a tear when Turtle gets indicted on RICO charges and money laundering.

[True Blue American]

41. Calling Mitch his good friend

Is the etiquette of the Senate. Nothing more.

[rainin]

46. I understand the etiquette of "my good friend",

but he extends the phrase like this: "my good friend, and he is my very good friend".

[calimary]

51. He's really not your "very good friend," Chuck.

I hoe deep-down you understand that. So far your “very good friend” has walked all over you.

[True Blue American]

54. Of course Chuck

Knows Mitch is no more his good friend than Trump is, but Chuck also knows you are polite.

Even the way he called Trump a liar in the WHITEHOUSE showed he knows how to phrase things.

Acting like an ass just like Trump would only make him and Pelosi look bad.

Anyone here ever heard the statement to treat your enemy with kindness? Besides,it makes them madder than anything you can do!

That is why Trump went into a rage after. He knew Chuck and Nancy played him. Chuck with a smirk on his face. Nancy played the grown up.

[Vinca]

5. Don isn't capable of acting like a normal human being. He can't drop his madness in a closet long

enough to chat politely for 10 seconds let alone a whole Christmas party. It must suck to be him.

[rickyhall]

6. FAKE PRESIDENT

[FreepFryer]

7. Fuck your feelings, you orange snowflake. (n/t)

[watoos]

8. What exactly is Kurtz saying?

That the party is only for Fox and Infowars, Rush, Daily Caller?

I'm afraid this isn't going to go over well for Trump. In all fairness to Trump he can't create an authoritarian/fascist government by being friendly with the press.

[llmart]

9. I just emailed ABC News.

I usually switch on Good Morning America because I appreciate how they've covered this debacle. However, for the past week there have been a couple of clips of interviews that came directly from Fox News. This morning they trotted out a clip of Melanoma on with Hannity. So I was pissed enough to email them to tell them that if I wanted to watch Fox News I would and to stop regurgitating Fox interviews.

On the other hand, they have been fairly honest in their reporting on Trump's criminal activities and went on later in the program to give quite a bit of time to the National Enquirer's involvement. Their legal analyst, Abrams has been really good too.

[Roland99]

10. Most fragile of egos

[JawJaw]

11. "increasingly contentious relationship"?

Increasingly paranoid relationship, more like.

He's got a perfectly good reason for feeling that way, obviously!

[Racerdog1]

12. Embarrasment to the country

This orange fuck wad has put this country in a state of perpetual angst. Die already asshole, no one will miss you.

[vlyons]

13. Hey Donny, don't strain yourself

being gracious, courteous, convivial, and hospitable.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. Sounds like he's miffed over the Time magazine's men and women of the year.

[watoos]

15. He is lucky he wasn't man of the year.

[Hortensis]

16. Now that you mention it, of course -- Heroic journalists

murdered by people he admires, Mr. Khashoggi of course, Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, daily deluge of lying fake coverage.

He's so pathetically delusional. Wonder what was bigger for him when the choice was announced, the relentlessly negative daily coverage, the government closing in on Trump thrashing haplessly in his trap, or being denied the cover he knows only he belongs on.

[GusBob]

17. I was wondering why he did this. You figured it out

It's payback. He expected that award.

Doesn't he have a fake Time cover somewhere?

[trusty elf]

42. Do you mean this one?

[Maeve]

20. Wasn't it last year he claimed he turned it down?

Ah, yes....
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/trump-says-he-turned-down-times-person-of-the-year-honor

[DFW]

19. I know a prominent rightist nut case who makes McConnell and Pence seem like Elizabeth Warren

He even considers Ryan to be a centrist sellout (!!!!). But even he knows that at social gatherings, especially big ones, to mix with everyone and glad-hand them (I even get a hug, and we both consider each other to be raging radicals for the enemy side). He never for a second hides his views--indeed, he's proud of them--but he never cuts off the lines of communication. He's what Trump would need to be in order to be REALLY dangerous. Instead, he's pissing off everyone except Sean Hannity, Mitch McConnell and the 25% who really WOULD vote for him if he shot someone dead on Fifth Avenue on live television.

I don't even know if there are any White House Christmas Parties being held this year. For some reason, they forgot to invite me ever since Obama left office A mere oversight, I'm sure (NOT!).

But considering the quality of the company that would have been there, anyway, I think I would have probably been made very ill, had I been invited and gone. At least I can be sure I didn't get onto the wrong list by accident!

[Eyeball_Kid]

39. McConnell needs to change the faces of those Senatorial fuckwits who always

stand behind him when he does his insipid announcements. They're always the same, with the same dour looks, the same head angles. It's like they're auditioning for a second Mt. Rushmore. Maybe it will be carved out of landfill.

[DFW]

43. It's a requirement

Republicans are required by law to have a dour look when they stand by a party leader making mean announcements.

Remember when Speaker John Bonehead was protesting the ACA with a bunch of dour-looking Republican Reps standing behind him? They were all nodding in unison as he angrily read from what he said was the preamble to the Constitution--except that what he was reading was from the Declaration of Independence (so much for strict Republican adherence to the Constitution, a document they don't even recognize if read to them out loud).

[zentrum]

22. This whole sequence obscures the

.....fact that the press should not be attending WH parties at all. Ever. The press exists to speak truth to power. To investigate. To ask the hard and embarrassing questions.

The Press and our political power brokers were never meant to socialize together, send their kids to the same private school and to be friendly schmoozers.

Trump's move here comes from his autocratic, fascistic aims---but in fact he press is way way too interlaced with the power elite in DC.

The whole thing is, at base, creepy and dangerous and not at all what the Constitution intended by a Free Press.

Our mainstream press has been captured by its social connections. It's only in this context that the Trump move is an abberation.

[oswaldactedalone]

23. Well said

[Kurt V.]

31. agree. maybe this will end it forever.

[DFW]

59. I disagree completely

First of all, "im Grunde genommen" is expressed as "at the heart of the matter," or, colloquially, "when you get right down to it."

Second, any journalist with any integrity should be able to attend as many functions as he or she wishes to. They get plenty of "off the record" info at these functions. Lots of "you didn't hear this from me, but...." inside information they will never get at a press conference. My father was a Washington journalist who was showered with both complaints from politicians (for being too hard) and compliments from politicians (for being hard but fair). As long as you don't sell your soul like a Fox Noise employee, WH parties can be functions to meet and socially interact with people who can reveal things you would never get at a formal occasion. I am not a journalist, but I do speak from first-hand experience. One meets not only other journalists but political personalities with whom you can talk not only off the record, but without a record of your even having met. Presidents have as much reason to fear these events as to welcome them, even though they or their staff are the ones who did the inviting. A Free Press also means having no restrictions being placed on them such as the ones you propose.

[getagrip_already]

24. Nancy Pelosi should invite them to the house for a holiday party as a hat tip.....

She can hold it in the rotunda. That would really piss off the minority president.......

[onetexan]

25. considering not only his fake presidency but everything dear to him is at stake at this point

it's understandable the Idiot is in no mood to party

[muntrv]

26. Ah, the war on Christmas.

[Fatemah2774]

29. I agree

Where is the outrage from Bill o'Reilly?

[watoos]

28. The press should hold a party

with the proceeds going to charity.

[OnDoutside]

36. And everyone has to go dressed as Robert Mueller !

[watoos]

48. Not Nicole Wallace.

[OnDoutside]

58. I dare not ask !

[Achilleaze]

30. He*s such a SMALL & cowardly man. repubes love that low shit.

* aka republcian Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[KelleyKramer]

32. He is a coward and hates anyone who truthfully reports his failures

He sure does have thin skin for someone with such a big ego

It's the same reason he is too much of a coward to go to the White House Correspondents Dinner

[Iliyah]

33. shithole HATES Christmas . . .

What say you . . . evangelist Christians . . . fake news (Murdoch) . . . supporters . . . GOP?

[IronLionZion]

34. Trump would love to give them all one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia

Dude hates journalists for reporting the facts about him. He would probably keep a separate party with just Fox News and Breitbart and anyone who gives him favorable coverage.

[PeeJ52]

35. He could still hold the party and just not attend...

It's not like anyone would want to be there with him anyway.

[mickswalkabout41]

44. And he and his buddy sarah

Haven’t had a White House briefing ina few weeks. What are you afraid of Donnie?

[WeekiWater]

45. Each reporter and news agency that would have been expected to get an invite...

Should put out a Russia article on him at the expected time that the party was to have started.

Trump has literally, not figuratively, fomented hate and promoted violence toward journalists. At a minimum, journalists have been assaulted as a direct result of Trumps war against them. I wouldn't care about their little Christmas party if it weren't for the clear and established trend.

[left-of-center2012]

47. this ...

“selected media people generally favorable to Trump, including a few Fox News hosts” have been invited to “a full panoply of other parties this holiday season.”

[malaise]

50. This criminal has no class

but why would they attend in the first place.

[lpbk2713]

52. Aw gee, they'll have to miss the red Xmas trees.

[brewens]

53. He saved himself the embarrassment of having all the invitations declined. Except for the FOX "News

people and other white-wing media.

[Me.]

55. Missing A Big Mac Party Is no Big Deal

[struggle4progress]

56. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Irving Tressler

... How to Make People Dislike You Instantly; How to Make a Poor First Impression, Give a Dog a Bad Name, etc ...

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1614276145/ref=acr_dpproductdetail_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

[greatauntoftriplets]

57. That'll get him more positive coverage!