Trump Held An Off-The-Record ‘Party’ With Reporters At His Palm Beach Estate, And People Are Appalled

On Sunday evening, Donald Trump invited his traveling press pool into his Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago estate for an off-the-record meeting. This shindig was initially reported by The Hill with special mention of how Trump hasn’t held a press conference for over 140 days. He postponed a public discussion of how he’d handle business interests after entering the White House, but the real estate mogul had time — precisely 30 minutes — to host reporters at his holiday home. Brian Stelter (who wasn’t in attendance) confirmed the “cocktail party” on Twitter, and then CNN’s Jeremy Diamond Instagrammed the above photo.

This isn’t the first time Trump’s pulled the closed-door/off-the-record routine with the press, and last time around, conflicting reports were largely unflattering. This little party sounded rather impromptu, as if Trump was just hanging out with Reince Priebus and multiple advisers including Kellyanne Conway. And maybe someone decided to invite the reporters in for Trump wine and the saddest looking ham sammies known to man?

Politico’s Mike Allen Instagrammed some photos from inside the event.

Valid concerns and critiques of Trump’s treatment of the press (and their apparent reaction by attending this party) arose.

https://twitter.com/sparksjls/status/810697921553436673

And of course, people trolled the heck out of Allen on Twitter like this.

https://twitter.com/BillionaireDad/status/810700406300913664
https://twitter.com/cpazzanese/status/810675675078258688

https://twitter.com/tabbycakes/status/810692738974941184
https://twitter.com/_JustinBurnett/status/810687161058070528

https://twitter.com/alanduda/status/810699337814704128

And after all was said and done — and none of it recorded — Trump dropped the press like a microwaved potato and went to a real dinner with Melania, Conway, and Priebus at Trump International golf course. Well, those sandwiches really did look like crap…

(Via The Hill & CNN)