Politics

Comparing Donald Trump And Barack Obama’s First Press Conferences In Office

Kaitlan Collins Contributor
Font Size:

President Trump defended his performance during his first four weeks in office and criticized the “out of control” media during a hastily assembled press briefing at the White House on Thursday.

Here’s how his first briefing as president measured up to Barack Obama’s on Feb. 9, 2009.

(Photos: Getty Images)

(Photos: Getty Images)

Trump’s opening statement was nearly three times as long as Obama’s.

Trump: 3,547 words. Obama: 1,196 words.

And that was before they took questions from the press.

Trump’s lasted almost 90 minutes. Obama’s was right at an hour.

WATCH:

WATCH:

Trump lambasted the media and denied ties to Russia.

“Unfortunately, much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system,” Trump said. “The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.”

“I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia,” Trump said. “I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia. President Putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election. He then, called me up extremely nicely to congratulate me on the inauguration, which was terrific. But so did many other leaders, almost all other leaders from almost all of the country. So that’s the extent.”

“Russia is fake news. Russia — this is fake news put out by the media. The real news is the fact that people, probably from the Obama administration because they’re there, because we have our new people going in place, right now.”

(Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Obama made the case for his massive stimulus plan, and ripped Republicans for “playing political games.”

Obama pushed his $800 billion in economic stimulus on Americans and accused Republicans of “playing politics.”

“I can’t afford to see Congress play the usual political games,” Obama said in 2009. “What we have to do right now is deliver for the American people.”

“The single most important part of this economic recovery and reinvestment plan is the fact that it will save or create up to 4 million jobs, because that’s what America needs most right now.”

(Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Obama was very serious.

He rarely smiled during the 60 minutes that he spoke on Feb. 9, 2009.

Trump lightened things up.

The president joked with CNN’s Jim Acosta that he had “checked his family tree” before selecting Alexander Acosta as his labor secretary pick.

“I looked — you know, I looked at that name,” Trump told Acosta as he asked a question. “I said, wait a minute, is there any relation there? Alex Acosta. I said, ‘Do me a favor, go back and check the family tree.'”

Both leaders said they inherited problems from their predecessor.

“To be honest, I inherited a mess, a mess, at home and abroad, a mess,” Trump said Thursday.

“What I won’t do is return to the failed theories of the last eight years that got us into this fix in the first place because those theories have been tested, and they have failed,” Obama said in 2009.

“My administration inherited a deficit of over $1 trillion, but because we also inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression, doing little or nothing at all will result in ever — even greater deficits, even greater job loss, even greater loss of income and even greater loss of confidence.”

And the headlines…

After Trump: 
New York Times: ‘I Inherited a Mess’: Trump Defends Record and Hits Media

Washington Post: Trump airs grievances at sprawling news conference, says he ‘inherited a mess’

Wall Street Journal: Trump Defends Himself, Denies Links to Russia

After Obama:
New York Times: Obama Sternly Takes On His Critics

Wall Street Journal: Obama Warns Of ‘Lost Decade’

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel