Donald Trump holds off-the-record Christmas party with reporters, but photos were okay

President-elect Donald Trump regularly vilifies the news media, has ditched his press pool on at least one occasion, and hasn't held a news conference since July, but on Sunday, he invited some reporters to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a holiday party. According to the Trump press pool's report, Trump stopped by the party for about half an hour, along with wife Melania, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway, spokesman Jason Miller, and Stephen Miller. The gathering was off the record, but according to media executive Mike Allen, the reporters were served Trump sparking wine and cold cuts — and photos were allowed:

Since the content of Trump's conversations with reporters is verboten, journalists took to Twitter to discuss the ethics and wisdom of chatting and noshing with the president-elect at his Florida estate:

Marc Caputo, currently with Politico, was a rare voice of conditional support for the reporters:

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

But the photos-or-it-didn't-happen aspect kind of encapsulated Trump's relationship with the news media.

Seriously, look at their eyes. Still, Trump appears to have had a fine time. According to the pool report, after chatting with reporters, Trump "apparently decided as he got in the car that instead of calling it a night he would go to dinner at his private club less than a mile away" with his entourage, "because everyone was dressed up."