ELECTION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “He eats almost every meal in the White House or at properties he owns. His presidential travel has been limited largely to red-state campaign rallies with adoring crowds, brief appearances surveying natural disasters, official travel overseas and a handful of forays to factories. His most consistent interactions with Americans are the steady diet of tweets he sends them. Every president complains that the White House is a confining bubble, but unlike his predecessors, Donald J. Trump has made little effort to break out of it. In many ways, he lives in an echo chamber of his own making, an approach to the presidency that will be strenuously tested as Mr. Trump begins his campaign for re-election. Virtually none of his travel as president has been to areas where he could expand his political base. Instead, he seems to mostly seek a controlled, home-court advantage. That will be the case on Thursday, when Mr. Trump travels to Grand Rapids, Mich., for one of the “Make America Great Again” rallies that have provided Mr. Trump with a direct connection to his base since he became president, and require registration to attend.”
–Michael Tackett, “Some Presidents Felt Trapped in the White House Bubble. Trump Thrives in It.,” The New York Times online, March 27, 2019