MEDIA WATCH: ANTI-Press Conference draws world focus

THE WHITE HOUSE  Press Conference called by President Donald Trump on Thursday, Feb.16  has garnered headlines and commentary around the world, but not the kind he may have been seeking.

The UK’s The Week  reported “US President Donald Trump has launched an “extraordinary” attack on his critics in what is being described as a “freak show” of a press conference”

In an impromptu press call, ostensibly to introduce labour secretary nominee Alex Acosta, Trump descended into a 75-minute performance of verbal fervour in which he challenged claims that his new administration was in chaos.

Saying his administration “is running like a finely-tuned machine”, the US President blamed any governmental foibles on the “inherited mess” from his predecessor Barack Obama. He also claimed his administration had achieved more in the first month than any government in US history.

He also dismissed claims of his relationship with Russia as “fake news” and lambasted the media.

According to the New Yorker, Trump has “escaped the bounds of reality that restrict most mortals”.

Describing his tone as “thinly suppressed fury”, the magazine says the conference only proved the Republican’s “manifest unsuitability for the job he now holds”.

It also argues he has “achieved virtually nothing, except scaring the bejesus out of the world” when compared to Obama’s first few weeks in the White House.

Trump accuses the press of being dishonest

CNN describes the conference as “an amazing moment in American political history”. It was “vintage Trump” and the “plainspoken, unvarnished manner” in which the world was reminded of “what helped Trump win the presidency against all odds”, it says.

Trump’s ad-hoc speech only served to portray an “apparent deep frustration not just with the media coverage of his White House and a desire to talk directly to the American people, but also possibly dismay with aides charged with defending him”.

Richard Wolffe at The Guardian says the “freak show of a press conference” would be “funny – if it weren’t so scary”.

The “anti-press conference” made it “painfully clear that we have all made a terrible mistake”, he continues, but the “circus plays well in Trump Country”, where the “rust belt surely loves this kind of braggadocious presidency combined with constant media bashing”.

The anti-press conference was a lead item on TV news channels across the world  on Friday morning, including BBC,  Deutchewelle,  Aljazeera and European channels, drawing attention away from the launching  of a campaign by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to cancel Brexit.