It’s always interesting to learn about how an American president handles their day-to-day. Barack Obama’s old daily schedules have become fodder for some of Twitter’s better feeds, revealing a productive though often quite dull routine, hailing from far less interesting times than these. But based on reports from inside the White House — and from our current president’s own Twitter feed — it appears the majority of Trump’s day is devoted to this: watching a ton of Fox News. Maybe that explains why he’s not been doing much to stop the pandemic, despite knowing its severity.
He also occasionally does press conferences and lets slip things he probably shouldn’t say out loud. That happened Thursday, when he blurted out that, at least the other night, he watched many hours of Fox News, where he’s still, even now (although not always), held in the highest of esteem.
Look at this. He is admitting to watching 9 hours of TV, all to see what they’re saying about him, to find out whether his latest short-term gambit succeeded in producing ego reinforcement. This is straight-up compulsive behavior. https://t.co/FJJxwqdNud
— David Roberts (@drvox) September 10, 2020
Trump was asked about the investigation under way by U.S. attorney John Durham, who is looking into the origins of the Mueller Report and what it had to say about Russian influence upon the 2016 election. Trump said he couldn’t say what it was going to say, but he suggested it would be flattering. He then listed other places that have said kind words about him, even after Wednesday’s bombshell reveal that Trump admitted to underplaying the severity of the coronavirus in its early stages. And of course, all of those places were on Fox News.
“I watched Liz McDonald. She’s fantastic,” Trump said. “I watched Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night, Sean Hannity last night, Tucker last night, Laura. I watched Fox & Friends in the morning. You watch these shows. You don’t have to go too far into the details, they cover things that are.”
As per The Daily Beast, this contradicts things Trump said last month, when he claimed he doesn’t “watch very much TV” because he works “very long hours.” Maybe it was a special occasion. And for whatever it’s worth, perhaps he didn’t watch all of Hannity the night before. After all, he was on it.
Still, this is, even for a Fox News devotee, a lot of Fox News. His admission was quickly picked up by social media, many of whom were horrified and the opposite of jealous.
sir this is 9 hours of television https://t.co/RrkykZ5HHu
— mark (@kept_simple) September 10, 2020
The President of the United States of America watches a lot of tv. https://t.co/Za6wNeu9Px
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) September 10, 2020
Trump at the podium boasting about binge-watching Fox News pic.twitter.com/xE6J36e2S9
— Alex Thomas (@AlexThomas) September 10, 2020
Ok, listening to @realDonaldTrump . Do you do anything other than watch Fox News? How about doing your job and keeping America safe?
— Wendy R. Sherman (@wendyrsherman) September 10, 2020
Some made solid Billy Joel jokes.
Worst “We Didn’t Start the Fire” remake of all time https://t.co/TADaH1DKl2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 10, 2020
The other notable part of Thursday’s press conference was when he snapped at a Washington Post reporter for asking him about his aforementioned remarks on the severity of COVID-19, in audio obtained by former Post alum Bob Woodward. That didn’t go well.
REPORTER: Why did you lie to the American people and why should we trust what you have to say —
TRUMP: That’s a terrible question and the phraseology. I didn’t lie. What I said, we have to be calm. pic.twitter.com/TZrvRa5fpU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 10, 2020
Anyway, Trump likes to watch. But we already strongly suspected that, didn’t we?