Access to Trump a phone call away
The president-elect chooses isolation, but is always available via his cellphone
NEW YORK— Exactly one week after becoming president-elect, Donald Trump stepped outside his namesake fortress here for the first time. He ventured just five blocks, to dinner at the 21 Club — a dark-mahogany-and-red-leather-banquette throwback, where jackets are de rigueur for men.
Trump is a man isolated, increasingly cosseted away from the voters who lifted him to his seemingly improbable victory. He favours his own people and his own places, creating the veneer of accessibility — his tweets reach millions and he still answers his cellphone — while placing himself in almost entirely habitual settings.
He spends most of his days in Trump Tower, with few close friends and few meaningful one-on-one interactions beyond family members, advisers and loyalists. Trump rarely leaves, not even for a breath of fresh air; nor does he encounter many people he does not already know or who do not work for him.
Yet, Trump remains omnipresent in American life, constantly communicating with the public via Twitter and media interviews without the varnish of news releases or the pro- tection of handlers.
And he answers his personal cellphone, something that acquaintances and colleagues speak of in almost reverential terms. As he prepares to enter the White House, Trump is resisting his advisers’ efforts to take away his cellphone or at least restrict his use of it, said one person close to him who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They worry about national security; he worries about losing touch. In many ways, Trump seems most comfortable communicating at a slight remove, with a stage or a screen serving as the intermediary between him and the public. Such tools are both his megaphone and his shield, allowing him to blast out a message undiluted with little risk. Trump has shunned some of the traditional photo ops that his predecessors have orchestrated to demonstrate compassion and forge a connection with everyday Americans.
He spent Veterans Day in November not laying a wreath at a memorial site, as then-president-elect Barack Obama did in 2008 to pay tribute to fallen soldiers, but staying inside Trump Tower (even though New York’s historical parade was marching right outside along Fifth Avenue).
“A lot of what you see by previous presidents are platitudes: ‘I’m going to go and pretend I’m supportive of a particular entity and serve food at a soup kitchen,’ ” said Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager of Trump’s. “Donald Trump wants to bring jobs back so we don’t have soup kitchens. He has not been a person to do staged events for the sake of doing staged events.”
Trump’s duality — his wariness of those not in his trusted orbit, yet his insatiable desire for constant contact and feedback — has posed challenges for his advisers and could ultimately leave him detached from everyday voters.
He does not use email and rarely surfs the Internet, meaning that telephone calls, television appearances or physical proximity are the best ways to reach him. Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser to Trump, likened him to a mix of former presidents Lyndon B. Johnson (with his ability to woo and cajole) and Nixon (with his late-night tendencies).
“He is like LBJ,” Stone said. “He loves the telephone. He loves calling people. He really does have a very good manner with people. He can be very likable on the phone.”
Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state, cited his prospective boss’s almost constant availability during his Senate confirmation hearing when asked how he would handle a Trump tweet that undermines his diplomatic efforts.
“I have his cellphone number,” the ExxonMobil chief said. “And he’s promised me he’ll answer.
“And,” Tillerson added, “he does.”