Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images
Donald Trump frustrated his traveling press corps Thursday night by taking the stage in Laconia, New Hampshire, while reporters were still en route to the event.
“I have really good news for you. I just heard that the press is stuck on their airplane. They can’t get here. I love it,” Trump said. “So they’re trying to get here now. They’re going to be here about 30 minutes late. They called us and said, ‘Could you wait? I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ Let’s get going, right? Let’s get going, New Hampshire.”
Trump has already bucked tradition this election cycle by not allowing his traveling press corps to fly with him to events or form a “protective pool” covering his movements whenever outside the home, similar to a system White House reporters use to track the president.
Still, news organizations expect to at least make it to the Trump events on time by paying to fly on a press charter arranged by the campaign. But the press charter left from a different airport than Trump, and reporters only caught the last few minutes of the candidate’s rally.
A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Not surprisingly, reporters weren’t happy.
We pay through the nose for press charter, which Trump campaign organizes & arranges … He started in NH w/ us still on the tarmac. So dumb
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) September 16, 2016
Traveling press corps just landed in New Hampshire for Trump’s event because we left from a different airport. /1
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) September 16, 2016
By the way, if we had a presidential nominee that flew with us like every other nominee ever in modern history this wouldn’t happen.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 16, 2016
Outlets pay thousands of dollars to be on these press flights. And we aren’t even getting to to cover the rallies.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 16, 2016
Hillary Clinton’s campaign faced scrutiny Sunday because reporters were not apprised of her whereabouts after she nearly collapsed after attending a Sept. 11 anniversary event. Clinton also only recently held a formal news conference after a 278-day drought that had rankled her traveling press corps.
But the Trump campaign’s restrictions on the press have been more severe, including removing journalists, controlling their movements and maintaining a blacklist of nearly a dozen news organizations (only lifted last week). That’s in addition to Trump routinely attacking reporters on stage, to the delight of his supporters.
Eli Stokols, a reporter for Politico, which had been shut out of events for months, noted Thursday that “access to Trump post-blacklist is at times worse than it was on the blacklist.”