Journos on ice
How hot is the White House briefing room? Pretty scorching if you’re Niall Stanage, the Hill reporter who was drawn into a back-and-forth with press secretary Karoline Leavitt over ICE’s conduct. Leavitt asked for Stanage’s opinion on why Renee Good was shot, he gave it… and she branded him a “biased reporter with a left-wing opinion.” “You shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat, you’re pretending like you’re a journalist but you’re a left-wing activist,” Leavitt continued, in a moment that was rapidly clipped for Team Trump’s social media and posted by a flurry of White House staff.
The temperature is considerably lower for most other journalists, however. During briefings, the double doors that serve as the main entrance are propped open, which in the winter months effectively turns the briefing room into a wind tunnel. This has led to regular tensions in the packed room ahead of Leavitt’s arrival, as tetchy hacks beg for the doors to be closed, while those in the entryway have to explain that White House staff have insisted they be kept open. The reason, apparently, has nothing to do with the sheer volume of reporters inside: Cockburn understands that Leavitt wants the doors open because she gets hot.
Thursday’s briefing offered a flashpoint in the door dispute: it was 32°F with a wind chill, “So cold I could barely think,” one reporter with a seat by the front told Cockburn. “Even when we’re packed like sardines in there, it’s absolutely frigid in the winter months,” said another. “My shivering is distracting as I’m trying to follow.” The chittering over whether the doors should remain open was momentarily quelled by Jacqui Heinrich, Fox News’s White House correspondent who will serve as White House Correspondents’ Association president for 2027-28. The no-nonsense Bostonian crossed over the room to insist the doors be closed, saying that White House staff had given their blessing.
Yet one door stayed open. Matters were complicated when the day’s “New Media seat” guest arrived: anti-trans campaigner Riley Gaines, who was accompanied by her husband and their three-month-old daughter. “Shut the door, there’s an infant in here!” cried out one veteran female reporter. Eventually the journalists got their way.
Next Tuesday DC will see highs of 24°F: Cockburn hopes his esteemed colleagues bring their anoraks (a Greenlandic word, by the way).
On our radar
MOSSAD MEETING David Barnea, the director of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, is in the US this weekend for talks with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff about Iran.
TIRED OF WINNING? A majority of Americans, 58 percent, consider the first year of Trump’s second term a failure, according to a CNN poll.
TOUGH JUSTICE Online donation efforts in aid of ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who shot Renee Good dead, have reached over $1 million. The campaigns were started on GoFundMe and GiveSendGo
Trumpy milky
Milk is back. President Trump signed the Whole Milk For Healthy Kids Act into law yesterday, allowing full-fat dairy to return to school lunches, which the White House is promoting as the linchpin to producing a hearty brand of kid that will rival the Greatest Generation. The move is fundamentally correct and nutritionally sound. But the Trump administration has been promoting it in a typically bombastic way that makes it seem like… more than it is.
There was the image of Trump the Milkman on the White House Instagram page, where Trump is carrying bottles of milk despite wearing his trademark blue suit, with the caption “Make Whole Milk Great Again.” Then the Stardew Valley-inspired video-game meme. Or Trump, with his fists on the Resolute Desk and a milk mustache on his lip, with the caption, “The Milk Mustache is Back. Drink Whole Milk.” Finally, there was the AI-generated video that RFK Jr. posted, where he sips a glass of whole milk in his office. It instantly transports him to some sort of nightclub setting, where he continues to dairy-chug, his eyes closed in ecstasy. Maybe he’s drinking it with an off-screen Olivia Nuzzi. It does a body good.
Mar-a-Doggo
Let’s be perfectly clear: Donald Trump did not host a furry convention at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. But Mar-a-Lago was the venue for the American Humane Society’s “Hero Dog Awards.” And the event did featuren several dancers wearing elaborate dog masks and Regency costumes that wouldn’t be out of place in Bridgerton.
(For the blissfully uninitiated, the “furry” internet subculture involves imagining oneself as an anthropomorphic animal, or “fursona,” and in some cases buying or making a custom ”fursuit” to dress as one. It is not a sex thing, many of them insist. Others are more honest. If you managed to get to Friday without anyone ruining your week, that’s over now.)
And yes, the event had an Eyes Wide Shut vibe about it, but parts of it also look curiously wholesome. Cockburn wishes he’d attended.
If Trump actually showed up at the benefit, it wasn’t for long, as he’s repeatedly said throughout his life that he’s “not a dog person.” A couple of dogs carried the day instead. Our “2025 hero dog” is a handsome wire-haired fellow named Sgt. Bo, whose “superpower” is providing comfort.
One runner-up, funnily enough, was “Donald,” who specializes in “intuitive guidance and life-saving protection”:
Donald is a golden retriever, a very handsome fellow. Some people are saying he’s a big, beautiful blonde. Surprisingly, Donald did not ignore the result and claim victory regardless.
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