It's past time to hear from Trump himself

Columnist Ruth Marcus has questions she'd like to ask the president, who's held only one news conference.

It’s been more than a year since Donald Trump held his one and only full-fledged news conference as president. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders emerges occasionally to not-answer questions. It is past time, though, to hear from the president himself, at length — not just answering a few shouted questions or taking a few queries at a joint event with a foreign leader.

Exhibit A: Friday’s exasperating session with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, at which Trump took two questions, both from friendly news outlets, neither of whom asked about the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, even though Trump’s former deputy campaign manager was entering a guilty plea at that very time.

Here is a partial list of questions in the unlikely event Trump chooses to submit to a real news conference:

Mr. President, you said the Mueller indictment shows there was no collusion. But the indictment alleges that Russia intervened with the intent of helping you get elected. Do you agree with that assessment? What is your basis for saying Russia’s actions had no effect on the outcome?

You said last November about Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.” Is that still your position? If so, why do you believe Putin? Why did you believe him previously?

Please outline what steps you have taken to prevent Russia from repeating in 2018 or 2020 what it did in 2016. What meetings have you held on this subject with your intelligence chiefs or national security council?

Last year, you tried to convince Congress not to enact new sanctions on Russia over its election interference. Recently, you declined to identify new targets of sanctions. In light of the Mueller indictment, what do you say to critics who believe you have been too soft on Russia?

In the aftermath of the most recent indictments, you expressed anger at various people and institutions — the FBI, Democrats and President Obama, among others. But you do not seem angry at Russia — at least judging from your public statements. Can you explain?

Last weekend you tweeted that “the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter” and suggested this was because “they are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.” Do you really believe the two are related? How would you feel about that tweet if you were one of the victims’ parents?

Given the latest indictments, would you still describe the Mueller investigation as “the single greatest witch hunt in American history”? Why?

When did you become aware that former national security adviser Michael Flynn had spoken to former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak about lifting sanctions? When did you become aware that Flynn had lied to the FBI about those conversations? What did you do in response? Why did you describe Flynn as a “good guy” and ask FBI director James Comey to “let this go,” referring to the investigation of Flynn?

Do you believe it is appropriate for your EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, to fly first-class at taxpayers’ expense?

Was it appropriate for Rob Porter to remain on the White House staff after officials there learned about allegations that he abused his former wives? If not, why was no action taken against him until the information became public? Why did you say you hope that Porter “has a great career ahead of him”? Why did it take you nine days to speak out against domestic abuse?

Are your taxes still being audited?

Mr. President, we have a lot of other questions on issues of substance, from the deficits that the United States faces as a result of new tax cuts and spending increases to your policies on guns.

Your predecessors regularly made themselves available for news conferences. Will you come back?

Ruth Marcus is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. Her email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.