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White House Memo
His volubility in his first few days back in office underscores that President Trump is in charge of his own show.
- Jan. 23, 2025, 10:27 a.m. ET
On the first night of his second presidency, Donald J. Trump was back in the Oval Office, doing something he sorely missed during those four long years out of power: mixing it up with the White House press corps.
“Nice to see you again!” he said as a pack of reporters crowded in front of the Resolute Desk and began volleying huge, consequential questions about Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Venezuela and Gaza across it.
“Stranger things have happened,” he mused playfully when asked if he might send Special Forces across the southern border. “That’s a big one!” he ooh-ed dramatically when an aide presented him with an executive order declaring Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations. He discovered a letter left for him in the desk by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and began to wave it around in the air — another shiny object to draw the cameras in a little closer.
At one point, he looked up at Peter Doocy, a Fox News reporter who covered the last occupant of the Oval Office, and asked: “Does Biden ever do news conferences like this? How many news conferences, Peter, has he done like this?”
“Like this?” Mr. Doocy asked incredulously. “Zero.”
Mr. Biden rarely engaged with the press in anything but the most structured of circumstances. His successor sees the ability to capture the attention of reporters at a moment’s notice as one of the best parts of the gig. Not long after he left office in 2021, Mr. Trump told an aide to “get the pool,” referring to the rotating group of journalists that travels daily with the president, because he wanted to “make a statement.” He had to be reminded that there was no longer a pool.
But now he is back — and so is the omnipresent clutch of cameras and reporters at his side. He’s already making the most of it. After his Inaugural Address on Monday, Mr. Trump gave an impromptu speech at the Capitol about the official address, then held a rally, then took more than 100 questions in the Oval Office and then spoke at some balls.
