The power of real reporting

President Trump came into office promising to decapitate mainstream media. He bullied and sued media companies, blocked or curtailed access for reporters, and elevated nontraditional news sources. Still, President Trump remains a voracious consumer of so-called legacy news and takes more calls from more reporters than any president in our lifetime. His days are often filled with responses—not to MAGA media or X influencers, but to conventional stories from conventional reporters at conventional media publications. For all his anti-media rhetoric, President Trump remains the most accessible president of modern times to many mainstream reporters. We're not diminishing the damage the president has done with lawsuits and constant claims of "fake news." It's real. Lawsuits drain money, time and attention.
But as we've seen at Axios this past year, interest in clinical, serious, credible reporting has never been higher—including inside this White House.