President Donald Trump points to a member of the media as he takes questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Donald Trump points to a member of the media as he takes questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaks are real. But the news about them is fake. The White House is a fine-tuned machine. Russia is a ruse. 
 
 For its stunning moments and memorable one-liners, Donald Trump's first solo news conference as president has no rivals in recent memory. For all the trappings of the White House and traditions of the forum, his performance was one of a swaggering, blustery campaigner, armed with grievances and primed to unload on his favorite targets. 
 
 In nearly an hour and a half at the podium, Trump bullied reporters, dismissed facts and then cracked a few caustic jokes — a combination that once made the candidate irresistible cable TV fodder. Now in office, he went even further, blaming the media for all but sinking his not-yet-launched attempt to "make a deal" with Moscow. 
 
 That matters, Trump said in one of his many improvisational asides, because he'd been briefed and "I can tell you ... nuclear holocaust would be like no other." 
 
 This was his and his aides' attempt to get the boss his groove back. Trump used the event to try to claw his young administration back from the brink after a defeat in court and the forced resignation of his top national security adviser. 
 
 He taunted reporters and waved away their attempts to fact-check him in real time. He (incorrectly) touted his Electoral College total and repeatedly blasted his November opponent — somehow mentioning Hillary Clinton more than anyone else in his defense of his administration's early days. He bragged that his White House is "a fine-tuned machine" and claimed "there has never been a presidency that has done so much in such a short period of time." 
 
 If only the news media would give him credit. Over and over, he accused the political press of being dishonest and suggested that any negative coverage of his administration was "fake news." He unloaded a torrent of grievances while positioning himself as the stand-in for the everyman, who, he declared, hates and distrusts reporters as much as he does. 
 
 "The press — the public doesn't believe you people anymore. Now, maybe I had something to do with that. I don't know. But they don't believe you," Trump charged. "But you've got to be at least a little bit fair, and that's why the public sees it. They see it. They see it's not fair. You take a look at some of your shows and you see the bias and the hatred." 
 
 The hastily called news conference was not on the White House's original schedule for Thursday, and some of Trump's own aides were surprised when the president let slip at a morning meeting that he would hold the event in the East Room just hours later. 
 
 The performance was vintage Trump, a throwback to the messy, zinger-filled news conferences he held during the early stages of his campaign. And, when combined with a rally slated for Saturday in Florida, it appeared to be the start of a one-two punch meant to re-energize a president whose White House in recent days has been buffeted by crisis and paralyzed by dysfunction. 
 
 Yet it was a far cry from the "buck stops here" mantra popularized by Harry Truman and other presidents who believed that the ultimate responsibility for any White House struggles lay with the president himself. Trump was eager to assign blame elsewhere, ignoring the nation's healthy economy and relative peace when he took office to say "to be honest, I inherited a mess, a mess, at home and abroad, a mess." 
 
 He mostly blamed the media for his woes, rebuffing suggestions that he was undermining confidence in the press or threatening the First Amendment by trying to convince the nation that "the press honestly is out of control." 
 
 "The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people," he said. "Tremendous disservice." 
 
 Never before has a president stood in the White House and so publicly maligned the press or attacked reporters by name, according to presidential historians. Not even Richard Nixon in the days of Watergate. 
 
 "It was bizarre theater," said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University. "He turned a presidential press conference into a reality TV show in which he can be the star and browbeat anyone who objects to him with the power of his office." 
 
 But for Trump, it continued a defining theme and amplified his chief strategist Stephen Bannon's decree that the media are "the opposition party." 
 
 Trump had put claims of press prejudice at the center of his campaign in an unprecedented way and earlier this month falsely accused the media of refusing to cover terrorist attacks across the world. Though Thursday's news conference was a messy, fact-challenged affair, it may well have been cheered by Trump supporters across the country who had packed arenas last year to jeer reporters and chant "tell the truth" at the press pen. 
 
 An Associated Press-GfK poll taken on the eve of the election revealed that 87 percent of Trump's supporters saw the media as biased against him. 
 
 Trump retains support among Republicans, and solid majorities of Americans say he is following through on his promises and is viewed as a strong leader, according to a Gallup survey. But his overall job approval rating is much lower than those of past presidents at the same point in their administrations. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 39 percent of Americans approve of his job performance while 56 percent disapprove. 
 
 For all of Trump's complaints, he appeared to delight in sparring with reporters in what was only his second news conference since last July. Several times he extended the event in order to field more questions. 
 
 Not that he answered them all. He dodged inquiries about his campaign's links to Russia and talked down several reporters before they could finish their questions. 
 
 On one subject in the news, he did defend the national security adviser he recently fired. 
 
 But he also made a point of complimenting a softball inquiry about the first lady as "a very nice question." He teased CNN reporter Jim Acosta for having the same last name as his new pick for labor secretary — Alexander Acosta, whose appointment was ostensibly the reason for the news conference — and said he asked his staff to make sure the men weren't related. 
 
 There were startling moments aplenty. 
 
 He chided a Jewish reporter wearing a kippah for asking a question about anti-Semitism. He asked an African-American reporter whether she could help set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. He displayed a rare moment of introspection when he discussed his love for kids amid his "very, very hard" decision whether to potentially deport young immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. 
 
 But mostly it was Trump's bravado on display, as when he incorrectly asserted that his Electoral College victory had been the largest of any president since Ronald Reagan — and then simply dismissed a reporter's attempt to correct him. 
 
 "Well, I don't know, I was given that information," said Trump. "But it was a very substantial victory, do you agree with that?" 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire ||||| President Donald Trump harkened back to the free-wheeling style of his unconventional 2016 Republican primary campaign in a 77-minute press conference Thursday during which he touted his poll numbers and took on the “dishonest media.” 
 
 President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions during a news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 16, 2017. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) 
 
 President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) 
 
 President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) 
 
 WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump harkened back to the free-wheeling style of his unconventional 2016 Republican primary campaign in a 77-minute press conference Thursday during which he touted his poll numbers and took on the “dishonest media.” 
 
 Payback was in the air as the newly-elected president took on the role of media critic. He excoriated CNN for its poor ratings, mocked the BBC as “that’s another beauty,” and responded to a question about anti-Semitism, saying to his questioner, “OK, sit down, I understand the rest of your question.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ditching decorum and diplomacy, Trump told the press, “the public doesn’t believe you anymore.” 
 
 The president took on the White House press corps after a week of negative news. Monday night National Security Adviser Mike Flynn resigned after the Washington Post reported that a Justice official had told the White House Flynn was susceptible to blackmail because he had misled senior administration officials about a conversation with the Russian ambassador during the transition. 
 
 Then the New York Times reported that unnamed U.S. officials believed some Trump backers were in contact with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 campaign. Wednesday the Wall Street Journal ran a story that suggested intelligence officials were withholding information from the commander-in-chief. 
 
 
 
 
 
 When Trump refused to take TV news reporters’ questions about Flynn and Russia at Wednesday’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, CNN’s Jim Acosta charged that Trump’s decision to call on only conservative and Christian media meant, “The fix is in.” 
 
 At a news conference called ostensibly to announce the nomination of law school dean Alexander Acosta as Labor Secretary, Trump joked to the CNN reporter that he had his staff “check the family tree” to make sure that his nominee with the same last name was not related. 
 
 “You can’t say he’s not responsive to the press,” Alice Stewart, a former reporter and current CNN contributor, GOP strategist and Trump supporter, said after the news conference. “He answered all the questions from all over the press corps and put to rest the long-standing dialogue that he shuts down certain news outlets.” 
 
 A week’s worth of pent up questions gushed forth at the briefing. 
 
 Did Trump fire Flynn? Yes, but not for what he said to the Russian ambassador, but because Flynn withheld information from Vice President Mike Pence. 
 
 Trump dismissed “the failing New York Times” story on alleged campaign contact with Russian officials as “a joke” and “fake news” — fabricated to explain away Democrat Hillary Clinton’s election loss. The problem, Trump contended, are leakers “probably from the Obama administration” who have been feeding classified information to the media. 
 
 
 
 
 
 “I said to myself,” said Trump, “‘What happens when I’m dealing with the problem of North Korea?’” 
 
 So how can Trump complain about leaks of from his shop when he said he loved Wikileaks when it was releasing e-mails from Clinton campaign operatives? The difference, said Trump, is that this week’s stories involve “highly-classified information” — not Clinton campaign chairman “John Podesta saying bad things about the boss.” 
 
 At one point, Trump suggested that “false, horrible, fake reporting makes it much harder to make a deal with Russia.” 
 
 As is his habit, Trump fudged a few facts himself – he said he won 306 electoral college votes, when in fact he won 304. He wrongly claimed that his win was “the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan,” when George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama fared better in the electoral college. 
 
 “It’s just crazy,” opined former CNN correspondent Frank Sesno, author of the book, “Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change.” “I know that this may scratch an itch that he has about the media and he feels this a really unfair situation and it may resonate with his base. This does not play well over time.” 
 
 Stewart is not so sure. “From a communications standpoint, I think attacking the media is not a smart move, but it’s worked for him,” she said. “His goal was to change the narrative and all you can say now is, ‘Mission accomplished.’” 
 
 On that point, Trump cited the latest Rasmussen poll, which found 55 percent of Americans approving of his performance in office. 
 
 For his part, Sesno believes the optics are bad as Trump came across as overly obsessed with the media. “He’s certainly not winning over the skeptics and the fence sitters.” 
 
 Trump, however, thinks the optics are bad for those who cover him. “And I’ll tell you what else I see,” Trump said during the epic press conference. “I see tone. You know the word ‘tone.’ The tone is such hatred. I’m really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is such — I do get good ratings, you have to admit that — the tone is such hatred.” 
 
 At the White House, however, Trump argued life is good. “I turn on the TV, open the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos,” he said. “Chaos. Yet, it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine.” 
 
 Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or at 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter. ||||| Jeffrey Lord on CNN with Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer (CNN/YouTube) 
 
 President Donald Trump’s Thursday press conference had many people talking. Addressing the latest White House scandal involving former national security advisor Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump said “Russia is fake news” noting later, “the leaks are absolutely real, the news is fake.” 
 
 In reality, Trump gave a weapons-grade crazy 77-minute press conference. However, CNN contributor and Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord had a different take on that “meltdown.” Speaking with CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer, Lord said, “I think we saw two different press conferences.” 
 
 “From my perspective, I thought he was relaxed, he was funny, he was on point. He took the whole issue of the media, and he had a very candid conversation,” Lord said. “This is the kind of conversation that I personally had with him a couple years ago in which he said some version of this same thing that he said today, except he was more specific.” 
 
 Lord described the president as “candid, very dedicated to the job, very in command.” 
 
 “What about some of the back and forth that he had with reporters? You used to work in the Reagan White House — is that really presidential four weeks into a new term?” Blitzer asked. “I think this is going to be his presidential style,” Lord replied. 
 
 Tapper later mentioned a reporter from NBC who called out President Trump for incessantly calling the media “fake news” while also “saying things that are not true,” noting the reporter was asking, “How do you have credibility to call us fake news?” 
 
 “I think it was a simple mistake,” replied Lord, calling the reporter’s question “nitpicky.” He then proceeded to launch an attack on the network. “I had somebody here locally say to me during the campaign, you know, they recognized me, and they came over and they said — and it was a comment about CNN, which I’ll be happy to make on air here, just so you know,” Lord started. 
 
 He continued, “They said if Donald Trump sneezed, CNN would spend four days talking about his damage to the environment. That’s the kind of perception, not just about CNN, but about the media at large, and that’s the kind of feeling that he addresses.” 
 
 Watch the full clip below.
– President Trump ripped into the "dishonest" and "out of control" media during his press conference Thursday—and it didn't take long for the media to fire back. Fox News anchor Shepard Smith was among those who criticized the president, saying he "keeps repeating ridiculous throwaway lines that are not true at all and sort of avoiding this issue of Russia as if we're some kind of fools for asking the question," the Hill reports. Smith said Trump "owes it to the American people" to answer legitimate questions liked the ones about Russia that he dismissed as "fake news." But not all the reviews were so negative. A look at coverage: Yes, he was "combative," observes Mara Liasson at NPR, "but he was also funny and charming like he was with the press during all those years in New York as a fixture in the tabloids. ... I think that he will get a lot of credit for doing this. I think it will thrill his supporters." The Washington Post fact-checks what it describes as 15 "dubious claims" from the conference, including Trump's claim that he had the "biggest electoral college win since Reagan." Trump had a total of 304 electoral college votes, which ranks sixth in the eight elections since Reagan's 525-vote 1984 landslide. Only George W. Bush won with fewer than Trump. "I was given that information," Trump said when a reporter challenged him on the statement. The AP takes a close look at Trump's "I inherited a mess line" and decides the claim itself is messy. CNN contributor Jeffrey Lord, reacting to scathing reviews: “Lord, I think we saw two different press conferences," he said, per Raw Story. "From my perspective, I thought he was relaxed, he was funny, he was on point. He took the whole issue of the media, and he had a very candid conversation." Politico has an exhaustive list of the topics Trump covered during the 77-minute presser, ranging from nuclear holocaust to CNN, which he downgraded from "fake news" to "very fake news." BuzzFeed has video of one of the conference's most heavily commented upon moments: when Trump asked a black reporter if she could set up a meeting between him and the Congressional Black Caucus. Presidential historians tell the AP that no president, including Nixon during the Watergate scandal, has publicly turned on the press the way Trump did. "It was bizarre theater," says Rice University history professor Douglas Brinkley. "He turned a presidential press conference into a reality-TV show in which he can be the star and browbeat anyone who objects to him with the power of his office." GOP strategist and CNN contributor Alice Stewart also found a few things to praise in Trump's performance. "You can't say he's not responsive to the press," she tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "He answered all the questions from all over the press corps and put to rest the long-standing dialogue that he shuts down certain news outlets." Vox lists nine moments that it suggests back up Jake Tapper's description of the press conference as "wild" and "unhinged," including Trump's claim that "the leaks are real" but "the news is fake." Late-night hosts approached the press conference as gleefully as a kid unwrapping Christmas presents, and the Washington Post rounds up some of their best lines. "My guess is he did it because he's mad and he just wanted to blow off some steam," Jimmy Kimmel said. "The tone of the press conference was like if your dad found a pack of cigarettes under your mattress." David Graham at the Atlantic looks at the continual theme of complaint in the conference and wonders: Does Trump hate his new job?