Op-Ed: She Watched Trump TV for 24 Hours

Monica Hesse spent 24 hours watching Trump TV, the White House's new round-the-clock YouTube channel, and came away with a surprising conclusion: President Trump needs the network coverage he so frequently criticizes. In a Washington Post column, Hesse explains that the White House created the channel after the administration banned several major outlets from the press pool and networks responded by boycotting live coverage. The result isn't slick state media or even basic cable news—it's mostly raw, context-free footage: signing ceremonies, health-care briefings, crime victim testimonials, plant tours, old rallies, Navy SEALs on dirt bikes, and even months-old Easter Egg Roll clips, all stitched together without hosts, captions, or explanation.

Instead of a carefully shaped narrative, viewers get what she calls a stream-of-consciousness experience—with long, awkward moments that traditional networks would never air, including Trump stranded onstage vamping to "God Bless the USA." And "after 24 hours of this, what become clear is that, my God, the White House needs CNN," she writes. "It needs CNN and its brethren to add some structure to this shapeless and fakakta viewing and governing experience. The president's enemy is not CNN. His real news network enemy has come from within." Read the full essay.