On the road with President Trump: 3 takeaways

It was just after 2 a.m. Sunday, and bleary-eyed reporters aboard Air Force One were halfway through a roughly 30-minute flight from Miami to Palm Beach, Fla.

That’s when members of the traveling press pool got word President Trump was going to pop by the press cabin of the plane to say hello and take a few questions. The update was both exciting and a bit surprising.

After all, it was past 2 in the morning, and the plane would be landing momentarily. But it was typical Trump: willing to engage with the press he has often vilified, and eager to get in yet another jab at his predecessor.

“I’m always available, unlike Biden. Think Biden would do an interview at 2 in the morning? He wouldn’t do one at 9 in the morning,” Trump said as reporters, photographers and a television camera packed tightly around the aisle of the plane.

As one of roughly a dozen outlets that rotates as the traveling print pooler to document the president’s travels for the rest of the press corps, The Hill spent the weekend following the president from Washington to Palm Beach, where he spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Mixed in were trips to his nearby golf property and a visit to Miami to attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event.

Here are three observations from a weekend spent traveling with Trump.

Trump’s love-hate relationship with the press on display

The president spoke to reporters each time he was aboard Air Force One, answering questions for nearly 30 minutes across four Q&A sessions.

He answered questions about tariffs, financial markets, the Ukraine-Russia war, a looming Senate primary in Texas, negotiations with Iran, his annual physical exam, a meeting with the president of El Salvador, the Masters golf tournament and more.

“This is the fake news. We’re just doing a little news conference. You want to partake?” Trump said during his 2 a.m. gaggle, inviting granddaughter Kai Trump to join.

There were also signs of how Trump has sought to surround himself with friendlier reporters.

Traveling on the plane was Brian Glenn, who works for the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice. Glenn has been a Trump-friendly voice in the press corps. He gained attention in February when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky why he wasn’t wearing a suit in the Oval Office. 

Trump told Glenn on Sunday it was a “nice question” when he asked how the president stays so energized.

“I have a lot of respect for the press. … Some of it’s fake news, but a lot of it’s good. Like you,” Trump said on the flight from Palm Beach to Washington on Sunday, gesturing to Glenn. “And really, some of it’s totally fake. And some — like ’60 Minutes.’”

As a result of changes the White House has made to the press pool that covers the president’s movements, The Associated Press did not have a seat on Air Force One or a spot in the pool over the weekend. It still had not rejoined the pool as of Tuesday, despite a court order directing the White House to restore the news outlet’s access. 

The trip was an encapsulation of the conundrum many reporters face with Trump. 

He is extremely accessible and willing to engage with reporters on both matters of great national and international importance, and on more casual events that are still of interest to many Americans. 

But he has also spent the past decade relentlessly attacking the press, undermining its credibility and threatening basic norms around who gets to cover the president. That has only ratcheted up in his second term as he threatens broadcasters whose reporting bothers him, targets outlets that do not use language that aligns with the administration and attacks specific reporters by name.

Musk’s constant presence

The weekend travels also revealed just how inseparable Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk can be.

When Trump boarded Air Force One to fly to Palm Beach, Musk was there. When Trump’s motorcade departed from Mar-a-Lago to attend a UFC fight in Miami, Musk was riding in the president’s vehicle. 

Musk bounded down the steps of Air Force One behind Trump in Miami, carrying his 4-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii, on his shoulders. Musk sat next to Trump at the UFC fight, and the president could be seen frequently leaning over to chat with the Tesla CEO as X Æ A-Xii sat on Musk’s lap.

Musk flew back to Washington with Trump and arrived back at the White House with him on Sunday night.

The Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder has had the occasional rocky moment within the administration, sparring behind the scenes with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and publicly criticizing trade adviser Peter Navarro.

But if Trump is growing tired of Musk, it isn’t showing. 

His apparent close personal relationship with the president is a sign the billionaire won’t suddenly disappear when his status as a special government employee expires at the end of May.

Trump’s connection to sports in term two

When Rory McIlroy failed to make par on the 18th hole at the Masters on Sunday, there was a realization among reporters sitting in vans readying to depart Mar-a-Lago and head back to Washington: We would not be leaving until the tournament was decided in a playoff.

Seventeen minutes after McIlroy sank a putt in the first playoff hole to clinch the victory, Trump’s motorcade was rolling toward the airport in Palm Beach. Trump later essentially told reporters there was no chance he’d have left before its conclusion.

“It’s one of my favorite shows ever. The Masters is, to me, maybe my favorite sporting show,” Trump said on the flight back to Washington.

It was a sports-filled weekend for the president, and not just because he visited his golf club in West Palm Beach on Saturday and Sunday. 

Trump spent Saturday night attending the UFC event in Miami. He was joined alongside the Octagon by several administration officials and by UFC CEO Dana White.

A UFC event is a comfortable place for Trump. It is a male-dominated audience and the kind of testosterone-fueled event that has come to define Trump’s brand. The crowd roared as Trump made a grand entrance into the arena just before the main card got underway.

The president held court as other attendees greeted him, including former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who just days earlier had expressed reservations about the fallout of Trump’s tariff policies. Trump also embraced Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host and UFC commentator.

Multiple fighters went over to acknowledge Trump after their events had ended. Trump’s motorcade didn’t depart the arena until 1:24 a.m.

“I thought it was great. I thought they were all great,” Trump told reporters of the fights. “Have you ever seen that before? Have you ever witnessed that?”

Trump’s sports fandom, and the relative embrace he’s gotten from athletes so far in his second term, has also been a notable difference from his first four years in the White House.

His first term was marked by a feud with the NFL, spats with various professional athletes and coaches and boycotts of White House visits from title winners. It reflected a general lack of acceptance for Trump in the sports world.

Trump’s second term has flipped the script.

He has already attended the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and a UFC fight.

He’s hosted several championship winning teams at the White House. When the Los Angeles Dodgers visited, star player Mookie Betts — who skipped a White House visit in 2019 after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series — was standing in the front row.

The Philadelphia Eagles are set to visit the White House later this month to mark their Super Bowl win.

It will be a significant shift from 2018, when Trump spent the prior season attacking athletes who protested during the national anthem and disinvited the Eagles from a White House celebration after numerous players planned to skip.