It's no secret President Trump likes to hear how wonderful he is, so much so that he reportedly made it a scheduled part of his daily routine. Every day, at 9.30 am and 4.30 pm, the president receives a folder containing positive news and compliments about himself, Vice News first reported.
The delivery of this special folder reportedly began during the 2016 presidential campaign and continued once Trump took office. Republican National Committee (RNC) staffers get up bright and early every day to scan the major news networks for coverage of the Republican president, sending the best clips to White House staff.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
From there, the positive news is sent to other White House officials and journalists, with the most complimentary clips also finding their way into one of the twice-daily folders for the president. The documents can include anything from news chyrons, to photos of President Trump looking presidential on TV, to positive tweets about him, according to Vice.
Compiling positive stories about politicians is a common practice done by both the Democratic and Republican parties, but showing the president the praise he's receiving (and leaving out all negative coverage) at scheduled times every single day is not.
President Trump has been at odds with much of the media since taking office, and often calls news stories he believes are unflattering or misleading about him "fake news," going so far as to continuously attack specific publications.
But despite his unwavering feuds with CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times, he still wants to know what positive stories about him are out there on the daily. The White House even has a director of rapid response, Andy Hemming, who is paid $89,000 a year to find positive stories about the Trump administration to send to journalists, Politico reports.
On top of wanting to see positive news stories about himself, Trump also likes for the people around him to be complimentary. During a June meeting, Cabinet members went around and praised the president one by one.
"While we are bragging about international travel I just got back from Mississippi and they like you there," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told Trump at the meeting.
Still, getting folders full of complimentary news twice a day is on a different level. The president has already proven his love for using binders, folders, and stacks of papers as props, so maybe these positive news folders will all appear in a news briefing one day.