For most of America’s recent commanders-in-chief, watching a little TV was a brief break from politics and criticism, a welcome respite from the pressures of the job, or a chance to feel normal. But none consumed as much television as Trump, or reacted as quickly or directly to what they were seeing. Things haven’t gone smoothly for Trump during his first 70 days in office, so perhaps it’s an escape for him, too—a way for him to return to the role he used to play in American politics: that of watcher and critic.

But “it’s a real problem to have a president that has that kind of obsession,” said Russell Riley, a presidential scholar at University of Virginia Miller Center. “The most valuable commodity in Washington is the president’s time, bar nothing. A president who elects to invest a lot of his time in tracking his own media coverage is, to some extent, debasing his own currency.”

During their presidencies, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama were “besieged by media criticism,” Riley said. Instead of watching the talking heads, they preferred to use television as an escape. “The media tends to be mainly incumbent unfriendly, and that’s the role of media in a democratic society, to be oppositionist,” Riley said. “They understood that part of being presidential was having thick skin and ignoring what was going on.”

Not so for Trump. The president has brought his campaign-trail feud with the media to the White House, continuing to watch the political pundits on television, responding with praise for some and insults for others. Aides have reportedly attempted to minimize Trump’s TV-watching, but, so far, it hasn’t worked. “He was elected because he was a reality TV star,” Riley told me. “It is a bit less surprising, then, that he would have a hard time tearing himself away.” MSNBC and Fox News are cashing in on Trump’s viewing habits, reportedly hiking up ad rates in February “as companies and outside groups try to influence Trump and his top lieutenants” through ads on his favorite networks.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, multiple stories were published comparing Trump and former President Ronald Reagan: Both worked in the entertainment business, and both were initially seen as political outsiders with a long shot at the presidency. As president, Reagan, too, would show up to work in the Oval Office around 9 a.m., relatively late for White House standards, and on a normal day, he’d clock out promptly at 5 p.m. But after returning to the residence, the Gipper filled his free time in very different ways.

News was different then: There were only a handful of networks, and news programs only lasted about 30 minutes, but Reagan would fit in about an hour of television on a normal day. Reagan biographer Craig Shirley told me the president would occasionally have guests over for movie-watching parties, too. (Shirley said Reagan once held a small viewing party to watch An Officer and a Gentleman and was traumatized by the amount of “gratuitous sex.”)