Off-the-record

Trump needles 'monster' Chuck Todd at off-the-record anchors' lunch

The president used his traditional pre-State of the Union sit-down to air his grievances with news coverage of his presidency, again.

By MICHAEL CALDERONE

Hours before his first formal State of the Union address, President Donald Trump gathered top news anchors at the White House and vented his spleen.

The president took a needling tone with Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” telling the group that Todd’s the nicest guy in the world until he gets on the show and then becomes “a monster.”

He had a more pointed exchange with NBC News anchor Lester Holt regarding a May 2017 interview in which the president said he considered the “Russia thing” when deciding to fire former FBI director James Comey. The president accused Holt of editing the interview to remove Trump comments the president claimed were almost “Shakespearean,” according to attendees. Holt responded that the entire interview ran online.

Trump, who starred in NBC’s “The Apprentice,” also commented during the lunch about how much money he made for the network and suggested the company’s brass, rather than the specific journalists, were to blame for coverage he doesn’t like.

The comments came at Tuesday’s traditional off-the-record lunch with top news anchors to preview the State of the Union address. While Trump spoke at length about issues like immigration, he also—as he often does—seemed to welcome the opportunity to express grievances.

The president’s gripes with NBC’s coverage come as the network is hosting Sunday’s Super Bowl. Trump has not committed to doing an interview with NBC, potentially breaking a recent tradition in which the president sits down with the host network prior to the game.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to comment. An NBC News spokesperson also declined to comment.

Trump didn’t scold the the anchors on Tuesday as he did in a Trump Tower meeting shortly after the 2016 election, according to attendees. The president was more blunt and boastful than angry in issuing other media critiques, such as claiming 95 percent of his coverage is bad and saying the networks have profited greatly because of his election. Trump was also said to be gracious with anchors during the hour-long lunch, like when he congratulated Jeff Glor on recently becoming anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”

During a private anchor lunch before last year’s speech to a joint session of Congress – an event that stands in for the State of the Union address in a president’s first year in office – Trump also expressed frustration with the news media. He told journalists at the time that he stopped watching some networks because they were treating him unfairly.

There were roughly two dozen people at this year’s lunch, including journalists George Stephanopoulos and David Muir (ABC News), Norah O’Donnell (CBS), Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum (Fox News), Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Roland Martin (TV One), José Díaz-Balart (Telemundo), Steve Scully (C-SPAN), Judy Woodruff and Yamiche Alcindor (PBS). Both Sanders and communications director Hope Hicks were among the administration attendees, with Vice President Mike Pence and chief of staff John Kelly stopping by.

Todd and Woodruff were said to be two of Trump’s most persistent questioners on Tuesday afternoon and the exchanges throughout were largely tied to issues likely to come up that night, such as DACA, the Obama-era program protecting some undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Some journalists veered into other topics, with Martin pressing Trump on housing segregation and voter suppression.

The back-and-forths throughout were off the record, but Trump did go on the record at times and the White House later released some remarks.

“I want to see our country united,” Trump said, adding that he wants “to bring our country back from a tremendous divisiveness” stretching back through past administrations.

Trump also spoke about his experience in business and how it differs from being president, noting that “millions of people” are affected by immigration policy. “So having a business background and a successful business background is great,” he added, “but oftentimes you do things that you would never do in business because you have to also govern with heart.”