MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “It was another bravura performance of ‘Chopper Talk.’ The latest iteration of President Donald Trump’s signature news conferences in front of a thwapping Marine One on Wednesday [8-21-19] was a whirligig of boastfulness, slingshot attacks and public self-therapy — in other words, vintage Trump. As reporters shouted dozens of questions above the din of the helicopter’s churning engines, Trump picked the ones he wanted — on Greenland, Russia, the Fed and background checks for gun sales — and brushed past those he didn’t. Wednesday’s careening, impromptu 35-minute news conference may have looked bizarre to veteran observers of the White House, not to mention maddening to television pros accustomed to high-quality audio and video production values. But there’s a method to the seeming madness. The ‘Chopper Talk’ sessions, as comedian Stephen Colbert has dubbed them, serve multiple goals for Trump, reporters and White House insiders say.”
–Michael Calderone and Daniel Lippman, “Trump’s ‘chopper talk’ puts media on the defensive,” Politico, August 22, 2019 6:31 am