Goodbye to Trump’s outrage bombs and hello to Biden’s first press conference

My flight path along the Florida coastline the other day made me wonder whether I’d be able to peer down at Mar-a-Lago, the new permanent home of Donald Trump.

I dozed off post-pretzels before we reached that point of the coastline, so I’ll never know, but the very idea of the man who loomed so large in all of our lives for so long suddenly being just a silent speck somewhere down there in the Sunshine State really hit me.

I say silent because his removal from the public discourse has been swift, and brutally effective. He was reduced from a man who could – at any hour – dominate the domestic and international news cycle to someone who issues occasional missives as formal statements which land from time to time like relics from another era. Despite his recent promises to start a new social media network and support certain loyal Republican candidates from afar, he is a shadow of the figure he once was.

It has transformed the day-to-day political beat immensely. Whether by accident or design, Trump created a powerful feedback loop of provoking outrage, doubling down when criticized, then throwing another outrage grenade to distract everyone from the first offence when confronted.

But now those spaces have to be filled. Right-wing pundits have gone from Trump cheerleaders and warm-up acts to the main event. Fox’s Tucker Carlson has never been such a hot topic, pushing vaccine scepticism and culture war titillation. Marjorie Taylor Greene gins up controversy after controversy. Senators generate made-for-Twitter viral moments by opining on the latest conservative outrage of the day.

Something’s changed, however. Without the White House as the eye of the outrage hurricane, it’s hard for each controversy to escalate enough to make a difference. President Biden has, broadly, taken the high road on hot-button culture war issues. He’s hovered over debates about trans rights, for example, by stating his position but not getting drawn into political mud-slinging. And he’s resisted the urge to tweak the tail of a former president still brooding about the fairness of his fairly comprehensive election defeat. It’s sucked the life out of the GOP playbook.

This stance has made newsgathering more challenging. For four years, Trump made it so that there was a clear issue capturing the public imagination, almost every day. There was a clear story, a “thing” that everyone was talking about.

But it has also made newsgathering more rewarding. There is more time to truly consider what the important issues of the day, week or month are, and there’s time to delve deeper into issues without fear of the president dropping an outrage bomb right after lunch. Biden’s first press conference as president today is expected to be a staid and steady affair: our reporters and editors will focus on political analysis without the added fear of having to deal with a sudden U-turn, an announcement plucked from the air which will soon be changed or rescinded, or an hour-long ramble about media conspiracists and intra-governmental enemies. In an unforgiving news cycle, that space to breathe can mean everything.

In other words, things have certainly changed in The Independent’s US bureaux post-Donald – but most certainly for the better.

Yours,

Dave Maclean

US features editor