Wait, Trump did what now?

Bringing active federal law enforcement agents to the WH podium like this for a political press conference is a gross abuse of power and does immeasurable harm to the agencies they represent.

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) January 3, 2019

opens Google news

Oy.

It was after 4 in the afternoon and the briefing room was half empty.

Minutes after 4:00 p.m., a voice came on the overhead speaker announcing that press secretary Sarah Sanders would hold a briefing in “five minutes.”
The scramble was on.
For a White House that has held increasingly rare briefings, the short notice was unusual yet not surprising. And as the press appearances have shrunk, the importance of each opportunity to ask questions has increased.

Surprises. No briefings, punctuated with “Surprise! Briefing in 5 minutes!” As if it were reality tv as opposed to the government of a heavily armed country.

And when Sanders took the podium, instead of taking questions she introduced a “very special guest” — the President of the United States.
“Hello, everybody, beautiful place, I haven’t seen it,” President Donald Trump said as he walked in, wishing the press assembled a happy new year.
Thursday marked Trump’s first official appearance at the briefing room podium nearly two years into his administration. But despite being billed as a press briefing, and taking place in the briefing room, Trump did not deliver a briefing (he took no questions) and instead gave a statement pressing for his border wall.

Because Twitter isn’t enough.

On the first day of divided government during his administration, Trump cited infrastructure as one area where the White House could work with the Democratic-controlled House. Then, Trump made a push for his border wall, introducing some members of the National Border Patrol Council and National ICE Council.

…

The President said he had been sitting in the Oval Office with the border patrol agents in a previously scheduled meeting and decided he wanted to “see the press” so the agents could “tell them about the importance of the wall.”
“First time I’ve ever done this. The first time I’ve done it, and I’ve done it for you (the National Border Patrol Council members). And I’m very proud of it,” he said.
Trump refused to take questions about the government shutdown, walking out of the briefing room along with the border patrol agents, Sanders, communications director Bill Shine and social media director Dan Scavino, a mere eight minutes after entering.

So that was the bringing active law enforcement agents to the podium for a marketing opportunity.