Who Is Asking?

How the White House Deals with Questions from the News Media

" Still, I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man."

- George Washington



Donald Trump



45% 49/110 answers

(Jan. 11 - April 20)

Press Secretary

Sean Spicer

48% 893/1856 answers

(Jan.24 - April 27)

Least Answers

Ryan Zinkie, Interior

33% 1/3 answers

(April 3)

Steve Mnuchin, Treasury

37% 13/35 answers

(Feb. 14 - April 26)

13/35 answers

(Feb.14 - April 26)

Wilbur Ross,

73%

Exec. Branch MVP

Wilbur Ross, Trade

73% 27/37 answers

(April 25)

Most Popular Question Topics



Most Avoided Topics



NEVER Answered Topics (100 days)



How Many Questions is Normal for a President to Answer?

A President obviously cannot answer every question. For example, an answer might be classified and they can't be expected to know everything. Also, often the answers are coming from a Press Secretary, who would not have perfect knowledge of a President's thoughts and plans .

In order to come up with a baseline, we took randomly selected press briefings and conferences from President G.W. Bush and President Obama. Both had a mean question answering percentage of approximately 70%. How does that compare with Trump...

The Trump Administration does a poor job of answering questions.

Using the same methodology for counting questions and answers during this current administration, Trump and his spokesmen answered less than 50% of all questions they were asked. This appears to be significantly worse than previous presidents, without even examining whether the responses are true or false.

This count includes every press briefing and press conference in the first 100 days which allowed questions. Donald Trump's one press conference as president-elect (January 11) was included to help provide a more robust data set. Follow the links above for the actual data.

2018, whoisasking

Healthcare - 141/269

52% answered

Wiretapping of - 84/191

Trump Tower (alleged) 44% answered

Russia - 90/164

55% answered

Michael Flynn - 54/93

58% answered

Tax Reform - 41/88

47% answered

Devin Nunes / White - 34/78

House Visitor Logs 44% answered

Exec. Order referred - 44/70

to as the "Travel Ban" 63% answered

Syria - 31/67

46% answered

Budget - 35/66

53% answered

North Korea and - 32/55

South Korea 58% answered

5 Questions - Ukraine

- Consumer Protection/

Antitrust/Internet Rights 4 Questions - Opioid Drugs

- Saudi Arabia

3 Questions - Puerto Rico

- The Federal Reserve

2 Questions - Egypt

- Columbia

1 Question - Afghanistan

- Gun Control

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Healthcare - 128 unanswered

48% bad

Wiretapping of - 107 unanswered

Trump Tower (alleged) 56% bad

Russia - 74 unanswered

45% bad

Tax Reform - 47 unanswered

53% bad

Devin Nunes / White - 44 unanswered

House Visitor Logs 56% bad

Michael Flynn - 39 un answered

42% bad

Syria - 36 unanswered 54% bad

Trump's Businesses, - 31 unanswered

Taxes & Mar-a-Lago Trips 63% bad

Budget - 31 unanswered

47% bad

Immigration - 20 unanswered

69% bad



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Year to

Date:

(Updated to Jan. 9)



9/16 56%

79/178 44%