This is what it's like to cover Donald Trump's campaign as a member of the press


Donald Trump is now openly hostile toward the press, vilifying the "rigged" and "dishonest" media at every event. His supporters agree with him, blaming media bias for Trump's recent slide in the polls. But covering Trump isn't exactly a cakewalk for the journalists assigned to his campaign, either, as NBC News reporter Katy Tur recounts in an essay at Marie Claire. Tur is probably best known for this exchange with Trump over his suggestion on July 27 that Russian hacker find and leak Hillary Clinton's deleted emails:
Tur, a London-based foreign correspondent assigned to the Trump campaign mostly because she happened to be in NBC's New York newsroom at the right (or wrong) moment, describes the Trump campaign as "like covering a hurricane that makes landfall on a daily basis," moving from one rally to the next and one controversy to another. "I've lost a diamond earring, a gold ring, a glove, two hats, a blazer, and one boyfriend (au revoir, Benoit), who said of my schedule: 'This is not what we do in France,'" she writes. "Friends and family have married, divorced, given birth, and died during this campaign, and I've missed it all."
There are also "memories I'll never lose with people I'll never forget," but Trump's propensity to single out reporters for criticism at his rallies can be downright frightening, she says, citing an event in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, last December:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump was telling the world he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States. "It's temporary," he later tried to soften. And then I heard my name. "She's back there. Little Katy. She's back there." I was six months into covering the Trump campaign for MSNBC and NBC News, and there I was, in the belly of a World War II battleship, in a press pen made out of bicycle racks, surrounded by thousands of whipped-up Trump supporters ... The crowd, feeding off Trump, seemed to turn on me like a large animal, angry and unchained. It wasn't until hours later, when Secret Service took the extraordinary step of walking me to my car, that the incident sank in. The wave of insults, harassment, and threats, via various social-media feeds, hasn't stopped since. [Marie Claire]
Nice work if you can stomach it? You can learn more about covering Trump's unusual campaign in Tur's essay at Marie Claire.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Some mainstream Democrats struggle with Zohran Mamdani's surprise win
TALKING POINT To embrace or not embrace? A party in transition grapples with a rising star ready to buck political norms and energize a new generation.
-
How to make music part of your vacation
Let the rhythm move you
-
What is credit card churning and why is it risky?
the explainer Churners frequently open new credit cards with the intent of earning a welcome bonus and accessing other perks
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from