White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt presented a compelling statistic to reporters during her Thursday briefing, highlighting the contrast between President Donald Trump’s accessibility and that of former President Joe Biden.
“As you all know, over the past month the president has taken questions from the press, all of you, nearly every single day, sometimes on multiple different occasions in the same day on any topic any of you wish to talk about,” Leavitt said.
“President Trump set the tone on this approach immediately when he took more than 12 times the questions in his first few hours in office as Joe Biden did in his entire first week,” she added.
One of the lasting images of Trump’s second inauguration on Jan. 20 was him signing numerous executive orders while answering questions from reporters.
In July 2024, Axios published a story titled “Biden’s media evasion,” revealing that the Democrat held fewer press conferences and media interviews than any of the last seven presidents at the same point in their term. At that time, Biden had conducted only 164, compared to Trump’s 468.
The next lowest were George W. Bush with 248 and Ronald Reagan with 262.
The Daily Signal reported in August 2023 that “over the past three months, the number of reporters with access to the White House dropped by 31%. There are now 442 fewer reporters with a coveted ‘hard pass’—the result of new rules announced in May.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller criticized White House reporters on Thursday for not focusing more on Biden’s apparent disengagement.
“You’re tempting me to say some very harsh things about some of our media friends,” Miller said when asked who was governing the country during the Biden years.
He continued, “It is true that many of the people in this room for four years failed to cover the fact that Joe Biden was mentally incompetent and was not running the country.”
Karoline Leavitt just revealed a shocking statistic.
"President Trump took more than 12 times the questions in his first few hours in office as Joe Biden did in his entire first week."
WOW!!! pic.twitter.com/bViZtL9ucD
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 20, 2025
Meanwhile, President Trump’s approval rating has managed to hold firm and remain in the positive exactly one month after taking office and amid a rapid introduction of his agenda.
Trump has recorded at least 50 percent approval ratings in three recent surveys, Newsweek reported, adding that the “surveys suggest that most Americans approve of the job the president is doing, despite other polls indicating that Trump’s favorability ratings have declined since his first few days back in office.”
A SurveyUSA poll of 2,000 adults found that a majority (51 percent) approve of Trump’s job as president, while 45 percent disapprove, giving him a net approval score of +6 points.
MUST WATCH 🔥🔥
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller gives a civics lesson to hyperventilating leftwingers fear mongering out about the cost and waste-cutting work of DOGE.
H/T: @ConradsonJordan for the excellent question. pic.twitter.com/HkBHZoFfoE
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 20, 2025
When analyzed by region, the results reveal that Trump enjoys stronger approval in rural areas (59 percent) compared to suburban (48 percent) and urban areas (51 percent).
The SurveyUSA poll was conducted between February 13 and 16, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
A separate Morning Consult poll, also released on Tuesday, showed that 50 percent of voters approve of Trump’s job as president, while 47 percent disapprove, Newsweek’s report continued.
Additionally, a recent survey from a Republican polling firm indicated that Trump maintains a strong approval rating.
The Napolitan News survey, conducted by Scott Rasmussen and RMG Research, showed Trump’s approval at 55 percent, with a disapproval rating of 43 percent, giving him a net approval score of +12 points, Newsweek added.
