President Trump is his own spokesman again.
He hasn’t named a successor to press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who left in August, leaving the White House podium mostly empty as his Republican Party tries to stave off a blue wave in the midterm elections.
“Despite the midterm elections quickly approaching, there doesn’t seem to be a great sense of urgency from the administration to fill this important position,” said Aaron Kall, the Lee H. Hess director of debate at the University of Michigan.
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Ms. Leavitt’s last formal press briefing was July 23, and she addressed reporters for the last time in a White House driveway gaggle on Aug. 27.
White House press briefings have been rare since then, even as the GOP tries to sell its America First agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and investment in domestic manufacturing.
Vice President J.D. Vance appeared at the podium on Sept. 3, and Attorney General Todd Blanche hosted a briefing on Sept. 15.
The Republican National Committee brushed off the lack of a press secretary as it fights to preserve GOP majorities in the House and Senate.
“There’s no greater spokesman for the Republican Party than President Donald J. Trump, and he’ll be out on the campaign trail in full force contrasting his historic achievements of cutting taxes, lowering drug costs, and securing the border, with the Democrats’ far-left extremist agenda,” RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said in an email to The Washington Times.
The White House often describes Mr. Trump as the most accessible president in history, pointing to his lengthy question-and-answer sessions at Oval Office events and on Air Force One.
He gaggled with reporters for over 30 minutes in the White House driveway on Tuesday, and he’s ramping up his travel schedule before the midterms.
“President Trump is the best messenger, unequivocal leader, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and in the weeks ahead the president will continue crisscrossing the country to deliver his message directly to the American people,” said White House spokesperson Olivia Wales.
Ms. Leavitt left the White House but is joining a Trump-aligned super PAC, MAGA Inc.
The senior deputy White House press secretary, Kush Desai, announced Wednesday he was departing to take a top role at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The White House said Mr. Trump will “choose the best candidate” for the main press secretary post.
“There are no announcements at this time. In the meantime, Cabinet secretaries and administration officials will continue to hold briefings,” said White House Communications Director Steven Cheung.
Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University, said Mr. Trump’s role as spokesman in chief comes with risks.
“My guess is that the number of vacancies will increase after the midterm elections and Trump will be left with a skeletal administration,” he said. “That certainly places him front and center, a position he enjoys, but one that makes him the sole owner of gaffes and blunders.”
Mr. Trump’s do-it-myself approach stretches back to his first term.
His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, curtailed and then stopped briefings altogether in early 2019.
Her successor, Stephanie Grisham, did not perform traditional White House briefings at all during her tenure from mid-2019 to early 2020, when Mr. Trump decided to host regular briefings on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kayleigh McEnany became press secretary in April 2020 and conducted her first briefing the next month.
What is unusual now is the lack of a press secretary at all.
“Presidents have relied upon press secretaries for the last 100 years,” Mr. Kall said. “The Trump administration had long lapses without formal press briefings during the first term, but I do believe this has been an unprecedented amount of time for a president to not have a press secretary successor lined up to formally take over the reins in the near future.”
Mr. Kall said Mr. Trump likely enjoys sending out Cabinet members and administration officials to “mix it up with the press” until he can name a successor.
“This entire episode is part of an overall tempestuous relationship between President Trump and the media,” Mr. Kall said. “In many ways they both need each other, but have remained at odds throughout this term in office.”
Those tensions rose in recent weeks after Ms. Leavitt left.
Mr. Trump moved to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from White House grounds. The attempted ban led to legal action, and a court ordered the administration to let the media outlets back in while the litigation plays out.
The president recently posted a photo of the briefing room on social media that read “Fake News Before,” alongside a mockup pool photo that read “FDR Pool After” — suggesting he wanted to revert the briefing area to the swimming pool built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s physical therapy.
President Richard Nixon converted the pool into an area for the growing White House press corps in 1970.
Even as Mr. Trump attacks the media, he speaks to reporters regularly and posts daily announcements on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Speaking to Time magazine, Mr. Trump said he believes in a free press, but he feels victimized by “fake news.”
“I don’t think anybody should be forced to bear fake news, constantly bad stories, because I’ve done great things,” he said. “I mean, I’ve done Venezuela. I’ve done — I can name … 100 great things I’ve done. I never get good press.”
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