It is no secret that President Trump is skeptical of the media, but he consumes it with his own meticulous method.
Although Trump rarely picks up a book, he has subscriptions to three print newspapers, Axios reported Tuesday. He reads the New York Times and the New York Post (paying special attention to Page Six) each morning, and skims the Wall Street Journal. He forgoes most papers that print particularly unflattering Trump material, but eventually he may pick up the Washington Post, friends of the president told Axios.
The president will not allow anything written about him get past him. Trump aides use an electronic clipping service to flag any mention of their boss in various articles, from which they will then choose the most prominent to print out and deliver to him.
Trump never forgets an interview. When he sees a familiar byline, he can recite how the reporter portrayed him in various interviews throughout his years in the spotlight, according to Axios. His office and hotels are filled with framed Time magazine covers that feature him.
But Trump certainly will not see the bylines on a screen. Despite his avid Twitter use, Trump rarely browses the internet.
"He's an analog guy," a top adviser told Axios, adding that he never sees the president on a laptop, or using his phone for anything but calls.
Instead, Trump has resisted the technological revolution and holds to print methods. He has all briefs delivered in print, marks them up with a sharpie, and has an employee turn them into a PDF to be sent out. Even his tweets tend to be dictated to an employee, who sends them out unfiltered.
Because he does not like reading, Trump needs his briefs to be one page and preferably in bullet points.
"I like bullets or I like as little as possible," he said in an interview with Axios. "I don't need, you know, 200-page reports on something that can be handled on a page. That I can tell you."
So it is no surprise that he gets much of his media fix from television. The president's DVR is filled with prime-time news, recording "60 Minutes," "Meet the Press," and "Access Hollywood." Each morning at 6 a.m., Trump catches "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, and by 7 a.m., he is normally on to "Fox and Friends." He flips to CNN when he can, despite labeling the network as "fake news" at his press conference on Jan. 11.
Trump also consumes New York talk radio, effectively covering all bases of media formats.
"He's so old-school that he thinks it's awesome to go on '60 Minutes," a friend told Axios. "He loves being one of Barbara Walters' '10 Most Fascinating People' of the year.'"