The White House wants to interrupt your scroll

From: POLITICO West Wing Playbook - Tuesday Sep 19,2023 09:17 pm

Sep 19, 2023

By Lauren Egan, Eli Stokols and Lawrence Ukenye

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Wanna get away from political news coverage? Too bad. The White House is determined to find you.

ERIKA TROMBLEY started last week as the director of consumer media, a brand new communications position created by comms director BEN LABOLT and senior adviser ANITA DUNN.

Most White House communication teams typically specialize in areas such as broadcast TV, print, radio and local news. The addition of a staffer dedicated solely to consumer media — which the White House defines as podcasts, magazines and digital lifestyle outlets — reflects both a shift in the media landscape and the communication tools the administration is prioritizing to get its message out ahead of the 2024 election.

“Less and less people get their news from broadcast,” said deputy communications director JEN MOLINA. “The majority of Americans are on their phones and on social media and gathering information from following outlets like Elle on Instagram or TikTok. Making sure those outlets are following what the president is doing for the American people is instrumental for us.”

Unlike most of her West Wing colleagues, Trombley doesn’t have a background in politics. She studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving to New York City to start her media career producing videos for Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Seventeen and Marie Claire. She spent the past few years working at theSkimm, where she first met Molina when the two collaborated in 2022 on a Q&A Biden did with the publication.

The White House has already been engaging with more soft-news, lifestyle focused outlets. President JOE BIDEN has gone on popular podcasts including “On Purpose with Jay Shetty” and “SmartLess;” first lady JILL BIDEN recently did an interview and photoshoot with Women’s Health; and press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE had a spread in Vogue earlier this month.

But with the addition of the consumer media position, the White House hopes to ramp up engagement to reach more young people as well as those who are not tapped into the day-to-day political news cycle. And as polls continue to show low approval ratings for the president, the White House plans to utilize nontraditional media to humanize him and his team.

“Not only will Erika be working on booking interviews with administration officials and Cabinet members regarding news and policy, but she’ll also be working on human interest pieces and profiles that illustrate a more personal side to the administration’s officials,” said another White House official.

The White House comms shop also said they’ve talked about inviting top editors from lifestyle magazines for briefings on the president’s policy accomplishments, similar to how regional news outlets are occasionally invited for briefing updates.

Trombley walks into the role at a time when Biden’s relationship with legacy media is strained. Although he’s engaged with digital sites like theSkimm and has participated in TV interviews, he has yet to sit down for a traditional news interview with The New York Times, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal. The Associated Press sat down with him last year, but for a conversation limited mostly to the economy.

The White House has long insisted that the rapidly changing media environment has made these types of interviews less necessary, and Trombley’s addition to the team is yet another sign of the direction that the Biden communications strategy is trending. Whatever DAVID IGNATIUS and MAUREEN DOWD might have had to say in recent columns, the White House is betting it didn’t penetrate too far outside the Beltway.

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POTUS PUZZLER

Which president worked as a lifeguard while in high school?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

BIDEN’S FAVORITE SPEECH THEME: Biden on Tuesday renewed his call to world leaders to support Ukraine against Russian aggression, our JONATHAN LEMIRE reports from the United Nations. Biden also rallied the world’s democracies against autocracies, telling the U.N. General Assembly that “the United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours.” Chinese leader XI JINPING and Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN were notably absent from the gathering, fueling a growing sentiment — acknowledged by White House aides — that the U.N. is losing its esteem as a place to enact change.

WHY BEAT AROUND THE BUSH? House Republicans will hold their first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing next week, the Washington Post’s MARIANA ALFARO reports. Oversight Committee spokesperson JESSICA COLLINS said the hearing will focus on the “constitutional and legal questions surrounding the President’s involvement in corruption and abuse of public office.” The committee also may subpoena the personal records of the president’s son and brother, HUNTER and JAMES BIDEN, as early as this week. Oversight and investigations spokesperson IAN SAMS called the move a “political stunt.”

VEXED IN THE CITY: Biden and New York City Mayor ERIC ADAMS have no plans to meet during the president’s three-day visit to the Big Apple. Both men met around this time last year at a Democratic fundraiser and a U.N. reception, but their relationship has progressively deteriorated as Adams repeatedly asks the administration for additional funding to address the city’s migrant crisis. Republicans have used Adams’ criticism over the issue to call out the administration for how it has handled the increase of migrants at the U.S. southern border. Our EMILY NGO has the details.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by The Hill’s ALEX GANGITANO about a White House memo hitting back at House Republicans, who they claim plan to conclude their impeachment probe by finding Biden guilty without any evidence. “The more time they waste on this wild goose chase, the more they reveal how much of a political stunt this inquiry truly is,” the White House said in the memo. Ian Sams retweeted the piece.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by the Wall Street Journal’s DAVID HARRISON about how the United Auto Workers strike is putting Biden’s clean energy priorities at risk. If workers are able to secure significant wage increases, it may be tougher for the U.S. to build an electric vehicle industry that could challenge China’s dominance, Harrison writes, especially since it's already more expensive to produce EV’s than gasoline-powered vehicles.

THE BUREAUCRATS

PERSONNEL MOVES: MARY FULLER has been named regional director of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Silicon Valley regional office. She previously served as head of legal at Jupiter Intelligence Inc.

Agenda Setting

UNION JOE AND ‘CAR GUY’ PRESIDENT, AT ODDS: Biden’s long-standing relationship with General Motors CEO MARY BARRA could complicate how the president responds to the UAW strike. Barra, who visited the White House eight times since Biden took office, helped the administration develop a national EV car-charging plan, and the president will need her support to reach his 2030 goal of having half of all car sales being EVs or plug-in hybrids.

“Fewer major industries are as aligned with the White House, and fewer executives are as close to the administration as Barra,” our SCOTT WALDMAN, HAILEY FUCHS and HOLLY OTTERBEIN write.

A PROMISE IS A PROMISE: Farmers are growing increasingly frustrated with Agriculture Secretary TOM VILSACK for not moving aggressively enough to enact policies designed to increase competition, our MARCIA BROWN reports for Pro s. The administration proposed a series of policies aimed at reversing decades of corporate consolidation within the industry, which it partially blamed for surging grocery prices.

“The slow pace of regulatory action, three years into Biden’s term, is giving many of them flashbacks to the Obama administration, when Vilsack was secretary for the first time and USDA pursued a similar regulatory overhaul,” Brown writes.

What We're Reading

Biden Aides Discuss Asian Pacts as Model for Saudi Defense Treaty (NYT’s Edward Wong and Mark Mazzetti)

The radical earnestness of Tony P (WaPo’s Travis M. Andrews)

The Kids on the Night Shift (NYT’s Hannah Dreier)

The Oppo Book

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recalled her shock when she learned she was taking over for her predecessor, JEN PSAKI. She was told of the promotion after being called into the Oval Office to meet with Biden.

“You’re kind of like, ‘Were there supposed to be fireworks happening? Mood music?’” Jean-Pierre told Vogue. “There was none of that.”

No. There was no mood music. But there was a note, left by Psaki, that included some advice from her mother: “Keep your feet planted on the ground and your spine stiff.”

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

RONALD REAGAN was a lifeguard at Lowell Park at Illinois' Rock River. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week and saved 77 lives while working at the park, according to the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. He was also hired to dig ditches at 14 and saved the money he earned from both jobs to pay for college.

Thanks to the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute for this question!

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.

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