Latest news with #AshleyParker
Atlantic
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
A Writer Who Slows Down the Speed-Reader
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Daily's Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what's keeping them entertained. Today's special guest is Ashley Parker, a staff writer who has covered the decline and fall of Elon Musk, interviewed President Donald Trump for The Atlantic 's June cover story, and written about miscarriage and motherhood. Ashley is a fan of anything by Ann Patchett, recommends watching The Studio for a comedy break, and considers Wonder Boys the rare movie that surpasses the book. The Culture Survey: Ashley Parker An author I will read anything by: Ann Patchett. I came to her late, and the first book I read was Bel Canto, but then I was hooked. I went back and read everything else she'd written, and I now read everything she writes, as soon as it comes out. My dirty secret is that I'm basically a modern-fiction speed-reader and very little I read stays with me, but Patchett has a way of creating entire worlds and characters that linger. (I actually met her at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival a few years ago, when we were both panelists, though it was far more exciting for me than it was for her, alas.) For literary mysteries, I am also obsessed with Tana French, and because I have to wait for each new book to come out, I have since discovered the Maeve Kerrigan series, by Jane Casey. The television show I'm most enjoying right now: My husband and I just binged The Survivors in a single night—me because I found it addictive, and him because he claims he wanted to 'get it over with.' We've since moved on to The Studio with Seth Rogen, which is consistently funny and well done. My favorite art movie: Wonder Boys. And this is not a question you asked, but I'm going to offer up anyhow that this is the rare—perhaps only!—instance where the movie is better than the book. (No offense, Michael Chabon.) It's got an amazing cast (Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jr., Frances McDormand, plus Katie Holmes in red cowboy boots) and an age-appropriate, middle-age romance. Enough said. An actor I would watch in anything: Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg—their essences are somehow endearingly familiar to me. Specifically: They both remind me of my dorky high-school guy friends, and I've always loved the movies they end up choosing. I recently watched Eisenberg's A Real Pain, which did not disappoint. And though I feel like I'm familiar even with Cera's more obscure work (see: Paper Heart), my all-time-favorite movie of his is probably Juno. Best work of nonfiction I've recently read: Invisible Child, by Andrea Elliott. On principle, I read almost zero nonfiction unless I have to for work, but I loved her series of stories for The New York Times on Dasani Coates, a young girl who comes of age in Brooklyn's homeless shelters. The book is similarly cinematic, and absolutely gripping. Also, for work—because I am interviewing the authors (separately) at Politics and Prose this month—I just read Empire of the Elite, by Michael Grynbaum, and 2024, by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf. They are very different books: Grynbaum's is an inside look at the golden years of Condé Nast and how it shaped our culture, and 2024 is an inside account of Donald Trump's, Joe Biden's, and Kamala Harris's 2024 campaigns. But they're both engaging, fantastic reads, and I'm glad I had an excuse to get early copies and violate my no-nonfiction rule. And on the topic of campaign books: I am wildly biased, but I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention my husband's 2020-Trump-campaign book, Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, which I read a bajillion times—chapter by chapter, often out of order—as he was writing it. It remains the best Trump-campaign book I've read, in part because, in addition to having a slew of scoops, it explains the Trump phenomenon and what motivates the MAGA base, including Trump's now-famous 'Front Row Joe' uber-loyalists. A musical artist who means a lot to me: Billy Joel. Long story, but the first cassette tape I ever discovered was my dad's copy of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits—Volume I & Volume II, and for a year or two in elementary school, I absolutely refused to listen to anything else—or to allow my family to listen to anything else. The last museum or gallery show that I loved: Yayoi Kusama's 'Infinity Mirrors,' when it came to the Hirshhorn a few years ago. I like that she's basically a hipster nonagenarian, and that her work is very accessible and fun, because I'm a philistine. Visiting the exhibit was also one of the first dates my now-husband and I went on, and on our honeymoon in Japan, we ended up seeing more of her work, so her show has a nice full-circle quality for me. Something I recently revisited: I keep meaning to reread The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, which my first boss, Maureen Dowd, introduced to me one day in an airport bookstore and correctly predicted that I'd love. A favorite story I've read in The Atlantic: I will read anything by Caitlin Flanagan; in fact, she is the reason I finally subscribed to The Atlantic several years ago. But the specific article that still stays with me, now more than a decade later, is Scott Stossel's ' Surviving Anxiety.' The writing is so vivid and honest, and as someone who has dealt with various phobias of my own, I found it imminently relatable. Something delightful introduced to me by a kid in my life: Kuk Sool Won, a Korean form of martial arts that my 6-year-old is currently obsessed with. We discovered it randomly, when I signed her up for a Kuk Sool after-care club, and she instantly fell in love. She is now a yellow-striped belt and takes it so seriously. Nothing brings me more joy than watching her bark out Korean words I don't understand and practice her various 'forms,' her mouth set in a line of grim determination. A poem, or line of poetry, that I return to: These words, from Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, aren't technically poetry, but they might as well be. Now that I'm a mom and in my 40s, I find them regularly drifting through my thoughts, unbidden: 'Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.' The Week Ahead Superman, a superhero movie starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan (in theaters Friday) Too Much, a comedy series co-created by Lena Dunham about a workaholic who moves to London to find love (premieres Thursday on Netflix) Vera, or Faith, a novel by Gary Shteyngart about the eccentric family of a precocious 10-year-old (out Tuesday) Essay The Christian Rocker at the Center of MAGA By Ali Breland After wildfires erupted in Los Angeles County earlier this year, a team from the Department of Housing and Urban Development descended on the wreckage. Led by HUD Secretary Scott Turner, the entourage walked through the rubble in Altadena, reassuring victims that the Trump administration had their back. At Turner's request, a Christian-nationalist musician named Sean Feucht tagged along. 'I can't overemphasize how amazing this opportunity is,' Feucht had posted on Instagram the day before. 'I'm bringing my guitar. We're going to worship. We're going to pray.' More in Culture Catch Up on The Atlantic Congressional Republicans didn't have to do this. The whole country is starting to look like California. The birth-rate crisis isn't as bad as you've heard—it's worse. Photo Album Take a look at these photos of people across Europe doing whatever they can to keep cool during days of oppressive heat. Play our daily crossword.
The Independent
13-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
I visited a tech-free retreat with my partner to see if the no-screen rule could bring us closer together
I have a confession: every single day begins and ends with my phone. It's the first thing I think of in the morning and the last thing I gaze upon before I close my eyes at night. My partner of 15 years doesn't get a look in. There's no chance of spontaneous sex – we're parents, I'm tired, overwhelmed and honestly, I'm looking for an effortless, fast dopamine fix. I'd rather scroll mindlessly on Vinted and social media than genuinely connect or enrich my mind with a good book or activity. I can feel how bad it is for me, and for my relationship, but it's an addiction and one that, if we're being realistic here, you probably have too. A smartphone relationship survey undertaken by SellCell has revealed that 71 per cent of people spend more of their personal time with their phone than their partner. Compounding this is the fact that 'no phone zones' don't exist in 82 per cent of homes, meaning phones are being used in the bedroom, which has been proven to disrupt sleep as well as meaningful connection. Relationship coach and psychotherapist Ashley Parker is one of many experts who believes excessive screen time inevitably removes our presence in relationships. She explains that, 'healthy interaction in relationships requires our full presence. When we're distracted, there's a lack of eye contact, we miss non-verbal cues which is a huge proportion of our communication and we miss opportunities for connection.' Parker says couples frequently complain about a lack of connection in her sessions because of time spent on screens, resulting in less talking and even less sex. 'It's not uncommon for couples to have some of their most meaningful interactions at bedtime, but with the rise in scrolling, this is often overtaken and means that those crucial times are being replaced. There's definitely an element of avoidance too. It's easy to gloss over difficult interactions or conflict by picking up your phone and drifting off into another world.' Sometimes to break the habit, regardless of what the habit is, you have to get out of the environment where you've become comfortable feeding it. So, to get clean from the screen we decided to leave our son for a few nights for the first time in eight years, and head to a luxury, low-tech retreat in Cotignac. Provincial French resort Lou Calen is not quite The White Lotus – they don't confiscate your phones and laptops on arrival but eschewing them is encouraged. There are no TVs in the bedrooms and you're immersed in nature – the estate comprises olive trees, fragrant flowers and an enchanting chorus of twittering birds, frogs and insects. The fruits and vegetables growing everywhere might end up on your plate at dinner at the retreat's Michelin starred restaurant. Plus, there are activities like locally grown wine tasting and traditional crafting workshops every week, developed specifically to bring you back to reality. It was astonishing to notice the anxiety the impending screen ban brought up. Despite heading off on what we both knew was likely to be a wonderful and well-earned break, I kept thinking of all the reasons I needed to be online – what if I got an urgent work email? What about taking and uploading photos for my friends and family to see on social media? What about needing to video call our son? Parker explains that calling out too much screen time is sometimes met with defensiveness and nerves, but approaching the topic with compassion and curiosity is key. 'Screen time doesn't have to be eradicated completely, but having some parameters around when both people will be completely present is important. This might look like ditching the phones at bedtime and in the morning – this is a prime time to reinvest energy in reflecting on your day. Or sharing what your hopes are for the coming day.' Realistically screens are always going to be a big part of our lives at home. But I hoped that perhaps by having this break and instigating a change, we might be able to develop healthier relationship with our phones, and each other. Going screen free was hard, and I'll admit. There were many times I reached for my phone to start scrolling out of habit, and felt irritable and anxious when I couldn't. But as we had scheduled calls home and I was officially OOO, I forced myself to keep the phone out of reach, and keep the laptop – which I did bring 'in case of emergency' – switched off. Over the course of three days, it felt like a weight had been lifted. Each morning, we woke and instead of immediately reading the news and checking notifications we connected with each other. We interpreted our dreams like we used to when we first met, talked about our plans and hopes and worries for the day ahead, and even had the chance to be physically intimate – definitely a better mood and energy boost than finding new likes on an Instagram post. It was certainly easier being in the stunning and carefully curated environment of Lou Calen than it would have been at home. Back in Scotland, where we live, we've fallen into what I now recognise as pretty depressing lifestyle habits. Constant chores and childcare always feels as though there's never enough time for self care, to exercise or to enjoy a hobby. Suddenly with screen time gone there were several more hours to play with. In Provence we swam in the outside pool, went to a wine tasting, played tennis, explored the village and learned its fascinating history. If we'd arrived a little earlier, we could have joined one of the retreat's drawing classes, learned to weave baskets or create flower wreaths. In the evenings we went for meals and actually spent the whole time in conversation – something 1 in 4 people, who say they play on their phone while eating with their partner, can't attest to. When we returned to our room, without our usual Netflix binge, we chose to read and make love. Admittedly, this last part might have been the hardest. The urge to bed rot while watching a TV series until the damning question, 'are you still watching…?' pops up on the screen is very real. Somehow, the idea of taking time to meditate or draw, or knit or read feels like it's going to be an effort rather than relaxing, even though I know from my own experience and the endless research papers exploring downtime demonstrates quite the opposite. All I wanted to do after dinner was put on an episode of Peep Show that we'd watched a thousand times before, and stare at memes. But it turns out, when forced, getting lost in a good book is still really nice, like it always used to be. Funnily enough, so is having sex and actually making that a priority. Maybe if I'd been forward thinking enough to bring some more activities with me, doodling, crafting or colouring in would have been pretty great too. Despite feeling a little jonesy, I ended up going to sleep earlier, waking feeling more refreshed and, here's the crazy twist: I did feel genuinely relaxed and happy, without the edge of despair and self-loathing that comes after a good scroll sesh. Parker says there's an immediacy in scrolling that becomes addictive, which is a large part of the reason we continue to do this to ourselves, rather than seek meaningful connection and true relaxation. Until recently, the term 'addiction' has typically defined behaviours related to substances, but given our widespread, problematic use of popular platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, this has now changed. A first of its kind study, conducted by the UCLA, scanned the brains of 32 teenagers (who often have the most susceptible brains) while they used what they were told was a small social network similar to Instagram. The teenagers were shown 148 photos over the course of 12 minutes, including 40 photos each that they had submitted themselves. When they saw a large number of 'likes' on their own photos, the scan lit up in the brain's reward circuitry. Very often couples will be watching other people doing the things they want to do, so why not invest the energy into actually doing that instead? Ashley Parker This constant synthetic use of our reward system has been linked to potential desensitisation and raised tolerance levels to feel-good chemicals, such as dopamine. This means that, just like an addiction, the more we use social media to get an approval fix, the more we feel we need to experience that happy feeling. Something that might have given us a healthy sense of satisfaction and enjoyment before, like reading or sex, would then be far less likely to. 'There's also a level of escapism and a low-level energy required,' Parker explains. 'Choosing screen time over connecting with your partner isn't necessarily a sign that the relationship is over, but perhaps more that the scrolling is serving as an avoidance or distraction. It can be really useful to consider what each person is actually getting from the screen time. What are you watching? What takes your interest? This really boils down to a deeper question – what are you both missing? You could think about how you might bring some of those interests into real life. Very often couples will be watching other people doing the things they want to do, so why not invest the energy into actually doing that instead?' Leaving Lou Calen feeling refreshed, romantic and with a strong incentive to lay off the screens back at home, I still knew there was a long way to go before we were able to kick the habit. Of course, as soon as we landed we uploaded the photos we took, we checked our messages and that night, we watched TV. But we've since deleted our social media apps and implemented a 'no phone zone' in the bedroom. It's baby steps, but having had a taste of freedom, I'm keen for us to break out of our virtual reality and relearn how to be present, and how to be happy with each other.
ABC News
02-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Is it really the end for Elon Musk and Trump?
Sam Hawley: Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Elon Musk has spent a lot of time inside the Oval Office, and it was from there, sporting a black eye, that the world's richest man was farewelled from his role in the Trump administration. Today, staff writer at The Atlantic, Ashley Parker, on Elon's exit, his black eye, and whether that's really the end of his role in politics. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Ashley, we're going to discuss Elon Musk's time in the Trump administration. Let's start back in July last year, because that's when the relationship, I guess, really started to blossom after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Ashley Parker: Yeah, it was that assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, that was really the turning point for Elon Musk when he kind of immediately afterwards decided he was going to be all in for Donald Trump. Donald Trump: Where is he? Come on up here, Elon. Elon Musk: I'm not just MAGA. I'm dark, gothic MAGA. Elon Musk: And we had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist-pumping after getting shot. Fight, fight, fight! Ashley Parker: He ended up being Donald Trump's single biggest donor, and when you have the richest man on the planet as your single biggest donor, that makes a real difference. Sam Hawley: Sure does. And he backed the right horse, of course, Musk. But he also helped Trump to win. And then after that, he was appointed as a special government employee, running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Elon Musk: This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw! Sam Hawley: So, he was really there all the time with Donald Trump, wasn't he? He was in the Oval Office, he was even allowed to bring his son into a meeting in the Oval Office. Donald Trump: This is X, and he's a great guy. High IQ. He's a high IQ individual. Ashley Parker: Yeah, and it started actually even before Trump became officially president, during the transition, where Trump spent almost all of his time at his private club in Mar-a-Lago, Elon Musk was always down there, he stayed in a place on the property. It should be noted he has many children. He has one son named X, who's five years old, who he really seems to favour. He was down there with X, and X continued to be a frequent presence, almost always, but not always, on Elon's shoulders. Sam Hawley: Yes, yes, literally. Alright, well of course in the final days of Elon Musk's time in the White House he criticised Donald Trump's so called so-called Big Beautiful Bill, a spending bill, that's making its way through congress, he told CBS News, well he basically didn't like it. Ashley Parker: I mean, he basically said, I believe either a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful, but probably not both. That was his view. Elon Musk: I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing. I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it could be both, my personal opinion. Ashley Parker: And, look, it goes with Elon Musk's worldview, and particularly his view as the head of Doge, which is that he believes that government should be smaller. I mean, being for smaller government in general is a very kind of classic Republican position, but it's a position that is fine to hold philosophically, but often what we see on both sides of the aisle is that when push comes to shove, you know, when those cuts mean cutting programs or benefits for people who live in your state and rely on them, or people you need to vote for you who like them, it's really hard to do. And that's why one of the operative words in this big, beautiful bill is big. Sam Hawley: Yes. All right, well, let's come to how much Musk actually managed to save the administration in a moment. But, look, he's left the political sphere for now, after 128 days. Donald Trump: Americans owe him a great debt of gratitude. So I just want to thank Elon for his time, as special government employee. Sam Hawley: And, Ashley, there was this extraordinary Oval Office press conference with Musk and Donald Trump on his final day, where he was sporting a black eye. Reporter: I wanted to ask quickly, Mr Musk, is your eye OK? What happened to your eye? Sam Hawley: Just tell me what happened there. Ashley Parker: So, you know, there are a ton of rumours, and there continue to be a ton of rumours, many of which you can find on X, about why he was sporting that black eye. The list of suspects is quite if we believe what Elon Musk said, Elon said that he was horsing around with his young son, X, and he sort of told X, go ahead, punch me in the face. Elon Musk: Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually does. Donald Trump: That was X, I tell you. X can do it. Ashley Parker: So he claims he got it from X. Sam Hawley: Wow. OK. All right. But as you say, there's a few other ideas of what that might have been all about. All right, well, let's look at what Elon Musk actually did at Doge and in the White House, because you've been reporting on this a lot for The Atlantic. He really up-ended several federal agencies, didn't he? Ashley Parker: Yeah, he sure did. Perhaps what he is best known for was he came in and he basically, to use his own words, he put USAID through the woodchipper. And that is an agency that falls under the State Department that provides humanitarian aid and assistance around the globe. And he just went in and really gutted that agency. That's one thing he did. And he also came in with a mandate from the president to try to reduce the number of federal workers and bureaucrats throughout the government at every agency. And so another thing he did was something he had done at Twitter, where he basically sent an email, and it was the same title of the email he used when he was at Twitter, or I guess now X under him, but called Fork in the Road that basically encouraged any federal worker who was interested, essentially, to leave government and in many ways terrorised the federal workforce. And it led to a lot of people leaving. And the irony was Donald Trump and Elon Musk, they have this sense that federal bureaucrats are sort of lazy, do-nothing workers, just punching a pay clock. But a lot of the federal workers who actually left under what Doge was doing were not these people. It was people who were highly talented and could make way more money in the private sector, but for whatever reason had chosen public service. He certainly reduced the workforce, but it was not necessarily the exact, precise types of people he necessarily wanted to lose. Sam Hawley: And the thing is, your reporting shows that it was really quite toxic behind the scenes. We don't want to use the F word, of course, on this podcast, but you write about this extraordinary scene in the White House between Musk and the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent. Just tell me about that. What happened? Ashley Parker: So, we reported this scene in a piece we did for The Atlantic on Elon Musk, in part because we thought it was illustrative of what happened when Elon Musk came to Washington, all cyber trucks and chainsaws, and ran up against the behemoth that is government. And so, in this particular instance, he and Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, were essentially fighting over who got to appoint the next IRS commissioner, which is someone who reports to the Treasury Secretary. And Elon had kind of gone in and put in his own guy. The view from Bessent and Treasury was, why does Elon Musk, this guy who knows nothing about the Treasury Department, who isn't really working here, why does he get to choose the new IRS commissioner? Eventually, one day in the White House, just outside of the Oval Office, where Trump can most certainly hear Scott Bessent start shouting at Elon Musk, an expletive, we'll leave it there, repeatedly. And Musk is kind of egging him on and calling him a failed hedge fund owner and saying, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, say it louder. But what we know 100% for certain is these two men were very close to each other, up in each other's faces, shouting at each other as they kind of careened through the corridors of the West Wing. Sam Hawley: Yeah, and you found that really, Musk found himself isolated within the upper reaches of the administration. Ashley Parker: Yes, so Musk came in with a, sort of move fast, break things approach that has worked at his companies, that we associate with Silicon Valley and big tech, but that does not work, and in this case, did not work with the federal bureaucracy. And as someone put it to me in my reporting, if your ethos is that you're gonna go in and set these agencies on fire, and of course there's gonna be some ash and some cinder to clean up, then you at least need to sort of work to have strong relationships with these cabinet secretaries and agency heads and get them on your side and make them understand why it is you're doing what you're doing, and he didn't really have the patience for that. So a lot of the top people are more than happy to see him go. Sam Hawley: Yeah, and he came nowhere near the targets for cost cutting, did he? He initially said he'd cut $2 trillion in federal spending, but no, that did not happen. Ashley Parker: No, he originally promised 2 trillion, then at one point he defined it downwards to 1 trillion, which like, let's just pause there to be clear, that's a pretty big backtrack. Yes. And then he revised the goal down yet again, but he did not come close. You know, the New York Times did some very good reporting on this where Doge was sort of keeping track of all of their cuts, but it turned out some cuts, they were just being sloppy. They would say they cut X billion when in fact it was million. It was just a typo, right? They were wildly over counting. There were some cuts they did make that then got frozen by the courts or reversed by the courts. And then there was other stuff that they took credit for, but programs that had already been cut under the Biden administration or money that was not gonna be reappropriated this time around. But the end result is that they did not come anywhere close to their stated goal, originally of 2 trillion, then of 1 trillion and then of even less. Elon Musk: And I'm confident that over time we'll see a trillion dollars of savings. The calculations of the Doge team thus far are over 160 billion and that's climbing. Sam Hawley: All right, well, Ashley, Musk is now going back to business, back to basics, I suppose. He's got SpaceX, of course, he's got Tesla, he's got X. SpaceX, you know, they had a rocket launch recently that failed, Tesla's shares have slumped, of course, we all know that. Can he turn it around, do you think? Ashley Parker: So, I will say Elon Musk has had a lot more success at his private companies than he has in government. It's something not just that he knows how to do, but it's also a place where the way no one, not even the president in government gets to reign supreme like a king, Elon Musk can be the king or the monarch of Tesla or SpaceX or X. So yeah, I think when he re-engages, he will be able to have a much more direct impact on these companies. One interesting question is Tesla, which has just become sort of so politicised right now. There's some people who liked the idea of electrical vehicles, liked Tesla, and are getting rid of their Teslas or would never buy a Tesla, in part because of Elon Musk's outsized role in the Trump administration. And then there's other MAGA people who might have never considered a Tesla before who now find it very appealing for precisely the same reason. So I do think Tesla may be, those vehicles may be politicised, at least for the foreseeable future. Sam Hawley: Yeah. All right. Well, he also, of course, wants to send unmanned starships to Mars by the end of next year. It's very ambitious, of course. Do you think that's it for him in terms of politics? Is it over? Ashley Parker: I don't think so. You know, he disagrees with some things the Trump administration is doing, but he likes Trump. Trump likes him on the whole. And I also just having covered Trump for as long as I have, which is going back to 2015, I think of sort of Trump world as like the Hotel California you can check out, but you never quite leave. So I would not be surprised if we see Elon Musk have a second or a third act, or at the very least become one of these unofficial outside advisors who frequently calls the president and plants ideas in his ear that we all then end up chasing as reporters and as the public. Sam Hawley: Ashley Parker is a staff writer at The Atlantic. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Adair Sheppard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Tension' among GOP over impact of Medicaid cuts on midterm elections
Republicans are pushing for $700 billion in health-related spending cuts as Congress debates cuts to Medicaid. Washington Post Congressional Economics Correspondent Jacob Bogage and Staff Writer at the Atlantic Ashley Parker join Katy Tur to share their political analysis as lawmakers push ahead to the midterms.
Newsweek
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
How to Get an Interview With Donald Trump: Just Call Him
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. White House officials frequently say Donald Trump is the "most accessible" president ever – and judging by how easy he can be to get on the phone, they're not wrong. In a new interview with Trump to coincide with his 100th day in office, journalists from The Atlantic magazine revealed how the unscheduled conversation came together: with a simple phone call out of the blue. Trump answered his personal cell phone on a Saturday morning late last month while at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey the same way most people do when they pick up an unknown number. "Who's calling?" the president of the United States asked, according to the magazine. On the other end of the line were the two Atlantic reporters with whom Trump had previously agreed to an interview, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer. But just days before the planned White House sitdown, Trump unloaded on the pair on Truth Social. President Trump welcomes the 2025 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles at the White House on Aprill 28. President Trump welcomes the 2025 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles at the White House on Aprill 28."Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview," Trump wrote. "She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her." Trump also fiercely criticized Scherer, claiming the writer had never penned a "fair" story about him, while deriding The Atlantic as a "third rate magazine" that would soon fold. But the leader of the free world picked up himself when the pair called on a lark days later, delivering on an impromptu interview the White House had previously cancelled. That appeared to be water under the bridge by the time Parker and Scherer got Trump on the line, with the journalists reporting he was "eager to talk about his accomplishments" while acknowledging in a rare bit of self-reflection how his second administration felt different. "The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys," Trump told the magazine. "And the second time, I run the country and the world." The story of how The Atlantic interview came to pass reflects how unusually reachable Trump has always been to reporters — an accessibility that he has carried with him to the Oval Office a second time, and one that comes with considerable security risks, according to experts who spoke to Newsweek. 'It's Sloppy' The Atlantic did not specify how it obtained Trump's cell number, but noted how White House staff have "imperfect control" of his personal communication devices. Some cybersecurity experts told Newsweek they were troubled by the report, especially considering how many people and entities could likely access the president's personal number. "If he's just using a standard Google or Android device, you have to assume there must be multiple governments listening to his every call, not the U.S. government," said Lee McKnight, an associate professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. Even if the phone is secure, like most devices used by military and other government officials, McKnight said he's still concerned about how widely Trump's cell number has been disseminated. "That doesn't get away from the issue — who has access to the number?" McKnight asked. "Who can reach him directly? How many people can? That's been his freewheeling style — he's always been known to like to be, you know, reachable and bypass the normal filters of protecting somebody in the office of the president from all kinds of folks." If Parker and Scherer managed to track down Trump's cell number, other reporters in Washington and New York would likely have the digits as well, creating potential vulnerabilities, McKnight said. Donald Trump talks on the phone in the McLaren garage prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome on May 05, 2024, in Miami, Florida. Donald Trump talks on the phone in the McLaren garage prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome on May 05, 2024, in Miami, Florida. AFP/Getty Images "In general for cybersecurity, the weakest link is the problem," McKnight said. "So even if the chain around him is secure, now there's all kind of potential bad scenarios happening." If someone can reach the president directly, AI-powered deepfakes of world leaders could potentially be used against Trump, McKnight said. "It's sloppy," he said. "From a cybersecurity point of view, the Trump administration has been incredibly sloppy." McKnight noted how Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor in chief, had previously been mistakenly added to a Signal group chat with White House national security officials that discussed sensitive military plans. North Korea, China, Russia, Iran and "other bad actors" are most likely taking heed, he said. "That's my major concern," McKnight said. McKnight believes amateur sleuths or hackers already know Trump's cell number, which could lead to unsolicited spoofing calls or other threats – much like the fake phone call the son of Altanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich made on Friday to NFL prospect Shedeur Sanders. "So, you could have an audio deepfake of Putin, with little snippets of Putin's voice and interacting with it for whatever purpose," McKnight said. "You could walk through that scenario. It could be other world leaders, but deepfakes. If it's just Trump directly, he doesn't have time, he's a busy guy. Cybersecurity's not his thing, he shouldn't be the one filtering who's real and who's not on his own personal device. That's just not prudent." Matthew Hicks, an associate professor of computer science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, said he didn't see Trump's personal cell phone as a potential security threat so long as he limits whom he contacts to reporters, friends and associates "Now, if he is giving orders via a personal cellphone, that could open the door to an attacker who can use a SIM swap attack to steal the president's personal cellphone number then deepfakes to issue executive orders, acting as him," Hicks said. Hicks also questioned how extensively Trump used the device. "I can assure you that any adversary that we care about already has this phone number," Hicks told Newsweek. "I think the important question is what the device is used for; if it is just to chat with reporters and friends, then I don't see the threat." Messages seeking additional details from the White House about Trump's usage of his personal cell phone were not returned Monday. Attempts to reach Trump directly on Monday were unsuccessful. "This is not president trump," Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., told Newsweek in a text message, declining further comment.
