Donald Trump dined with major broadcast and cable network news anchors on Tuesday, carrying on a long tradition of presidents having lunch with the major media figures in the hours before delivering a State of the Union address.
The three major broadcast anchors — ABC News‘ David Muir, CBS News‘ Tony Dokoupil and NBC News‘ Tom Llamas — were there, and the list of attendees also included MS NOW‘s Stephanie Ruhle, NewsNation’s Blake Burman and Leland Vittert and Newsmax‘s Greta Van Susteren and Rob Finnerty sources said.
Also there was Jonathan Karl, ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent and This Week host, who said in a post on social media that Trump offered a preview of his speech. Per Karl, Trump also talked about Iran, and said that “Iran wants a deal more than I do, but they just can’t say the magic words, which he said was they won’t build a bomb.”
Karl added, “The president said he is going to talk a lot about the economy, and he’s going to call for new tax cuts tonight and he’s going to say that the ‘next three years in America will be the best years economically that we ever had.'”
He said that Trump told the anchors, “It’s already begun.”
The lunch itself is off the record, but occasionally anchors are allowed to report some details.
The fact that the tradition has carried on is notable, given Trump’s routine characterization of news he doesn’t like as “fake news,” and his threats against the networks. In his year in office, his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has revived investigations against ABC News over the way that its 2024 presidential debate was moderated, as well as one against CBS News over the way 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris.
More to come.
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