Mo News Talks With Fox’s Bret Baier On Trump’s Media Strategy & Similarities To Teddy Roosevelt
Mo News sat down with Fox News Anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday to talk about his new book about Teddy Roosevelt. We also asked him about the current presidential administration. Baier says President Trump is talking to reporters on the phone much more than expected.
Despite Trump’s combative relationship with the mainstream media — including suing major media outlets for billions of dollars and calling the media the “enemy of the state” — he still takes many off-the-record calls from those same outlets.
”He knows the power of informing where his head is,” Baier said. “Those reporters...understand the power of those off-the-record conversations.”
Baier, who has closely covered Trump for a decade and interviewed him multiple times, also says the president sees provocative messaging as a PR win.
“I know President Trump is of the mindset that when he makes the left’s heads explode, he has a PR win,” Baier told Mo News. “There’s a ton of reaction to it, almost overreaction, and then the wheel comes back and people say, ‘Yeah, what’s the deal with that?’”
TRUMP & ROOSEVELT
During our interview, we discussed Baier’s new presidential biography, “To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower,” and the similarities between Roosevelt and Trump.
Both understood the power of the press and the political value of fighting the media.
Roosevelt, who coined the term “muckraker” for journalists, knew how to use the media to his advantage — much like Trump does with his “fake news” label.
ON PENTAGON PLEDGE
Baier told Mo News that he was “happy” that Fox News did not sign the Pentagon’s new restrictive press policy to not obtain or use any unapproved/unauthorized material.
“You were covering stories and talking to people, but you were not in search of trying to get classified information,” he said, recounting his time as the Fox News Pentagon correspondent for six years. “You’re talking about finding out from different services how they see different things and piecing stories together. That’s called journalism.”
He said the he does not think the Pentagon, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is going to compromise and is instead welcoming other more politically friendly outlets to sign the pledge. As for what happens to Pentagon coverage now: “We’re obviously gonna cover it, but it won’t be from the inside and maybe a little different,” Baier said.
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MO NEWS: WHITE HOUSE HISTORY 101
This is the most significant White House expansion since the addition of the West Wing in 1902. It is set to double the size of the complex.
White House historians note that renovations and expansions have long marked different eras: Theodore Roosevelt built the West Wing, Franklin Roosevelt moved the Oval Office and added an indoor swimming pool, Harry Truman oversaw a major gutting of the White house, and Richard Nixon added a bowling alley and a press room.
The East Wing, which traditionally houses the first lady’s offices, is being partially demolished to make space for the new space.
This is the second major project on White House grounds this year, following the paving over of part of the Rose Garden to add a patio. The ballroom is planned to be completed before the end of his term.