Data Proves Trump Is Most Accessible President in History

Even President Donald Trump’s sharpest critics can’t deny that he’s the most accessible and transparent chief executive in modern American history – and the data proves it. Isn’t it nice to have a president who is available again?

As Breitbart first reported, White House records show that President Trump has already surpassed 750 media events during his second term – averaging more than one per day. “The length of these 759 events spanned 21,058 minutes, or approximately 351 hours,” the outlet noted. Trump took questions from the media at 474 of these events, or about 63 percent of the time.

This stands in stark contrast to Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, who was the least accessible president of the modern era and would often go weeks or even months without taking questions from the press. Despite a corporate media ecosystem that was eager to make Biden look good, his handlers would urgently shuffle the 46th president away from any microphone lest he add to his astonishing list of gaffes.

Even some of Trump’s harshest media critics have been forced to acknowledge his record-setting transparency. Last May, the Associated Press reported on a study confirming that Trump “had more frequent exchanges with reporters during his first 100 days in office than any of his six predecessors.”

A month later, the AP again admitted that Trump is far easier to reach than most world leaders, saying he offers reporters “an almost unfathomable level of access.” Journalists who call Trump “on his personal cell phone often get an answer — and an interview — from the leader of the free world on the spot.”

This has always been one of Trump’s calling cards – no one ever has to wonder what he’s thinking. He doesn’t do political correctness, and he doesn’t pull punches.

Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush, concurred that the president’s availability to the press, including his willingness to conduct impromptu phone interviews, “defies tradition.”

“Part of Trump’s success is his raw authenticity,” Fleischer said last summer. “He’s unscripted. He’s not a typical politician, and it shows every day. So [the phone interviews] fit with who he is.”

What makes Trump’s openness so remarkable is that he knows that the vast majority of reporters he engages with are openly hostile toward him and conservatives, yet he gives them access anyway. Perhaps more than any other president in history, Trump would be justified in restricting and cutting off access to a media establishment that has spent a decade publishing false and misleading stories about him, actively tried to boost his opponents, and amplified the personal attacks and smear campaigns against his family and many of his top advisors.

If anything, the media should be grateful to Trump after what the press just endured under the Biden administration. Political scientist Martha Kumar found that Biden “engaged in fewer press conferences and media interviews than any of the last seven presidents at this point in their terms,” according to a July 2024 report in Axios.

During his entire first year in the White House, Biden conducted just nine news conferences, CNN reported.

Some journalism groups ultimately did criticize the Biden White House for dodging their questions. “Fleeting exchanges are insufficient to building the historical record of the president’s views on a broad array of public concerns,” Steven Portnoy with the White House Correspondents’ Association lamented in January 2022. “We have had scant opportunities in this first year to learn the president’s views on a broad range of public concerns.”

Even when Biden did take questions, it was more like a scripted play than an authentic press conference.

Breitbart noted that Biden “often resorted to calling on reporters from a pre-approved list compiled by his staff, complete with reporter name pronunciation guides and summaries of their questions and how to respond.” Such an arrangement is an insult to the idea of a free and independent press and should have been roundly condemned by the media.

White House officials, elected Democrats, and even some media pundits came up with every excuse under the sun for why Biden spent most of his tenure away from the public view. But the real reason became painfully obvious during his debate with Trump in 2024, which ultimately led to his withdrawal from the race.

However, instead of appreciating a president who appears in public, takes their phone calls, and offers answers to virtually any question, the media has returned to spreading malicious falsehoods about Trump in a transparent attempt to undermine his presidency and sink Republican chances in this November’s midterm elections.

Love him or hate him, one thing is clear – President Trump is not afraid to get in the ring with the media and answer their questions, fair or unfair. Transparency is vital to any democratic republic. The country did not have transparency under Biden, but it has it now. For that, we should all be grateful.