Elections

The Media Is Furious That Trump Ditched Them To Go Eat A Steak Last Night

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

(ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Kaitlan Collins Contributor
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Reporters were furious when Donald Trump ditched his press pool so he could eat at a steakhouse in peace Tuesday night.

(Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Around 6 p.m, the president-elect’s spokesman Hope Hicks told the press pool that he was staying in his apartment for the rest of the night — calling a “lid.”

The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson — the lead pooler on duty — stayed behind and said that less than two hours later a motorcade involving “at least a dozen vehicles and an ambulance, all with lights on” was seen leaving Trump Tower and headed for a Manhattan steakhouse.

Though Riggs said Trump was at Keens Steakhouse, he was actually at 21 Club.

(Photo: Splash News)

(Photo: Splash News)

(Photo: Splash News)

(Photo: Splash News)

The press pool hopped in a cab and followed Trump to the restaurant, where police refused to let them inside or even on the block of the restaurant.

Johnson complained that a dumpster blocked their view.

“At 9:38pm, the pool peered around a dumpster and watched Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, get into a SUV,” Johnson noted in her pool report. “A fellow pooler asked if they enjoyed dinner, and Ivanka Trump smiled.”

Trump’s motorcade was seen back at Trump Tower around 9:41 p.m.

“I believe that means we have a lid for the evening,” Johnson concluded.

(Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

Reporters were furious that Trump had “violated protocol.”

“With his Tuesday night actions, the Trump Administration is shaping up to be the least accessible to the public and the press in modern history,” Alexandra Jaffe and Ali Vitali at NBC News said.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said it wasn’t “an inside baseball thing.”

“Once you are president, once you are president-elect, it is a matter of tradition, it is a matter of security, it is a matter of national interest that you don’t go dark — you’re not really allowed to be a private person anymore,” Maddow said.

“There’s no law that says the president or president-elect has to allow a press pool representative to follow their movements, but it is tradition, and it’s tradition for a reason, and it’s a tradition that has a national security basis, and it’s a tradition, so far at least, that Donald Trump appears intent on not following.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association said it was “unacceptable.”

“One week after the election, it is unacceptable for the next president of the United States to travel without a regular pool to record his movements and inform the public about his whereabouts,” the WHCA said in a statement.

“The White House Correspondents’ Association is pleased to hear reassurances by the Trump transition team that it will respect long-held traditions of press access at the White House and support a pool structure. But the time to act on that promise is now. Pool reporters are in place in New York to cover the president-elect as he assembles his new administration. It is critical that they be allowed to do their jobs.”

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