President-elect Donald Trump’s much-anticipated, much-delayed press conference on his private business dealings — and the recent unverified reports about Russia’s alleged blackmail of Trump — reminded the nation of his unique speaking style and how it is received by the press.
Consider the opening lines of his press conference. Despite this being Trump’s first press conference since winning the election, he declared, “It's very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them on an almost daily basis. I think we probably maybe won the nomination because of news conferences.”
Over the next few minutes, Trump jumped from news in the auto industry to bidding procedures in the drug industry, pharma lobbyists, and his involvement with generals and admirals on the F-35 program and “perhaps the F-18” program, declared himself the “greatest jobs producer that God ever created,” and then discussed plans for the inauguration ceremony’s musical performances. Somewhere in there, he also announced his pick for Veterans Affairs secretary.
For those who covered and followed Trump during this campaign, his style has become familiar — and transcribing him off script continues to be a challenge
