President Donald Trump needed a veritable reset at times during his tumultuous campaign this summer, and whenever he felt his support might be sagging, he took his case to the American people, tirelessly traveling the country and speaking to massive crowds that ultimately won him the election.
Now in the White House, he is going to do the same this weekend: Return to his supporters and speak to the masses that got him there.
"He feeds off the crowd's energy," a source close to the president told The Hill.
"For him, it's a demonstrative visual. It proves to the country – and the press corps – what people are really thinking, and it gets him out of Washington, which is always a good idea."
Trump spoke to a crowd of Boeing workers Friday in South Carolina.
"I'm going to do everything I can to unleash the power of the American spirit and to put our great people back to work," Trump said with Air Force One and the new Boeing jet behind him. "This is our mantra: buy American, and hire American."
Trump now heads for a presidential rally in Melbourne, Fla., capping a week of derision from the media and a raucous White House news conference Thursday.
"There's no better communicator, no more brilliant connector, natural connector with people – whether he's sending out a tweet that everybody can see at the same time . . . democratization of information – everybody sees at the same time what the president of the United States just said," White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told Newmax TV's "The Howie Carr Show" on Friday.
"And it's masterful; it's very much him."
Conway was referring to President Trump's dramatic confrontation with media Thursday, which continued via Twitter on Friday evening.
The media "is not my enemy" but "the enemy of the American People!" he wrote in pre-rally tweetstorm.
It might be interesting to note those tweets came from President Trump's personal Twitter account and not the one assigned to the U.S. president @POTUS.
That account retweeted an @WhiteHouse tweet, calling Thursday's news conference rant "Trump's Weekly Address."
"He's very media savvy, and I think he did say to himself, 'I need to get out there and change the narrative,'" Lord told The Hill, adding this will be "the way he’s going to communicate with the American people over the next four years."
If a Thursday-like "Beat the Press" – as Newsmax White House correspondent John Gizzi wrote – is indeed a weekly event, we are in for an interesting four years.
Or eight – as Conway told Carr: "The media and the White House are going to have joint custody of this country for the next eight years. We ought to find out a way to do it civilly and to get it collaboratively."
Very clearly this is how President Trump wants to run his presidency: His way.
"It's a little different with him," Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord told The Hill. "His supporters are people who are on a mission. It's a movement. It's a cause. They want to change Washington.
"People love these [rallies]. It's smart for him to do it."
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