【Complete Series Archives】

On Tuesday night,Complete Series Archives president-elect Donald Trump ditched the press for a trip to New York steakhouse 21 Club. It's the second time it's happened in the last week, the first being when Trump refused to allow a press pool to accompany him on his trip to Washington, D.C. to discuss transitioning into the White House with president Barack Obama. Both incidents send an unmistakable sign to reporters covering him that the heavy-handed media tactics of his campaign will rage on under Trump's upcoming presidency.

So why should you care?

Well, for one thing, it goes against the norm of presidential press relations—even the most media-averse American presidents never quite hidfrom the press pool like this. Bigger picture, though? It threatens essential direct media access to the president, foreshadowing future attempts to shut out the unfiltered, independent flow of news Americans depend on in holding their elected leaders accountable.

What's the White House press pool?

We all know about the White House correspondents, the group of print, digital, and broadcast journalists who cover and report on the president's daily movements. They're the ones you see crammed into the White House Press Room, bombarding the White House Press Secretary with questions during daily press briefings.

(These reporters are also part of the White House Correspondents Association, the group that puts on that fancy dinner every spring that usually features some decent presidential burns. It was formed in 1914 out of opposition to threats from then-president Woodrow Wilson to block reporters' access to the White House.)

But there's also the protective press pool, a group of White House correspondents that cover specific events and travel with the president, both domestically and overseas. Since the White House can't accompany every correspondent on trips, this is a smaller, rotating group of reporters who file pool reports back to the larger group of correspondents.

Why does the White House protective pool matter?

The protective pool ensures that there's complete and accurate media coverage of the president, his whereabouts, and his actions on a day-to-day basis. They're the only line of direct news access for the American public. They're also there to cover news surrounding the president wherever he goes and have been a key link for the American public in some of the darker moments of presidential history.

Take, for instance, the pool reporters who were in the vehicle directly behind John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

And, in 1981, White House reporters were literally next to Ronald Reagan when John Hinckley shot the president in an assassination attempt. Judy Woodruff, a White House correspondent at the time, recounted the incident on Twitter in 2015 and underscored the importance of having reporters there to determine fact from fiction.

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There's also the issue of knowing exactly where the president is. While bringing up the bizarre story of Harold Holt, the Australian Prime Minister who literally disappeared in 1967 may seem like a bit of stretch, there was legitimate confusion as to where Trump was on Wednesday morning.

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While it's highly unlikely that Trump disappeared swimming in the Hudson River, that the media even had to question the president-elect's whereabouts isn't, it's safe to say, a good thing.

Trump's troubling secrecy

Rising tensions with the press are a holdover from a presidential campaign where Trump not only routinely shut out the media, but even attacked members of the mainstream press at his rallies, creating such a dangerous situation for reporters covering the rallies that there was at least once instance where a reporter needed a police escort while leaving.

On several occasions during the 2016 campaign, Trump left the media behind, causing them to be late to rallies and preventing them for fully covering the events. It wasn't until late September that Trump's campaign offered reporters a "chase plane" and allowed them to travel within the candidates motorcade.

Instead of directly addressing reports of chaos and confusion within his own transition team in a press conference—as past president-elects have—Trump continues to hide behind a wall of secrecy, coming up only to lob more invectives at established media outlets.

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Trump had already scaled back his media appearances in the final days of the campaign, retreating to the mostly-friendly territory of Fox News. And, thus far, his interview with 60 Minutesremains his only post-election interview.

The press fights back

Reporters found out about Trump's outing to the 21 Club for dinner on Tuesday night via a tweet from a Bloomberg reporter who just happened to already be at the restaurant (named incorrectly in the reporter's original tweet).

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The appearance came after Trump reps had told reporters there was a "lid" in place Tuesday night, meaning no other events or travel was expected of the president elect.

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Trump's spokesperson Hope Hicks told Mashablevia email that Trump's trip was "an unexpected movement" and added, "we are still in the process of formalizing a protective pool structure and look forward to implementing that as soon as possible."

Still, the backlash from media was swift.

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Press organizations formally denounced Trump for the shrug-off. In a statement to Mashable, president of the White House Correspondents Association Jeff Mason explained via email: "One week after the election, it is unacceptable for the next president of the United States to travel without a regular pool to record his movements and inform the public about his whereabouts."

And, in an open letter to Trump, the National Press Club said, "We call on you to commit to a protective press pool from now until the final day of your presidency."

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The concern here isn't what Trump eats for dinner (though most likely: steak, well-done) but, rather, Trump's pattern of deception when it comes to the press. After all, there's no law that guarantees the press's access to the president.

The limitation of access to a president who has made so many stunning, controversial pledges and proclamations as well as the aforementioned battles with the press is, to be kind, a bad sign. Paired with his promises to try to legislate against the press, and coziness with billionaires who have gone to war with the press? They transmit a stark signal: That he's ready to greatly curtail the press's ability to inform the public and hold his presidency accountable. And it should go without saying, but: The ability to do that is something that's always been essential to the balance and checks of power in America, to say nothing of how much more important it's becoming on a day-by-day basis, right now.