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The White House stenographers have a problem. Donald Trump is talking so much, the people responsible for transcribing his public remarks are struggling to keep up with all the words. There were more than 22,000 on Inauguration Day, then another 17,000 when Trump visited disaster sites in North Carolina and California. Its enough to strain the ears and fingers of even the most dedicated stenographer, especially after four years of Joe Biden’s relative quiet. Now there are discussions about hiring additional staff to keep up with the workload, according to people with knowledge of the conversations who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters. The flood of words is one of the most visible or audible shifts from Biden to Trump, who craves the spotlight and understands better than most politicians that attention is a form of power. He’s been speaking nearly nonstop since starting his second term, drowning out dissenting voices and leaving his opponents struggling to be heard. Take Wednesday, for example. During a signing ceremony for legislation to accelerate deportations, Trump, a Republican, talked up his accomplishments, claimed Hamas was using U.S.-funded condoms to make bombs in Gaza, defended his administration’s efforts to freeze federal spending and reduce the government workforce, veered through descriptions of migrant violence and made the surprise announcement that Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would be used as a detention center for people who are in the U.S. illegally. Trump’s commentary remains laden with falsehoods, including baseless allegations about voter fraud and assertions that California water policies worsened the recent wildfires. Sometimes he speaks off the cuff about consequential geopolitical matters, such as a recent suggestion that Palestinians should be displaced from Gaza while the enclave is rebuilt. It can be hard to know when to take him seriously, like when he muses about serving a third term, which the U.S. Constitution does not allow. But now that Trump is back in the presidency, it’s hard to ignore him. Hes dictating the news on his terms,” said Michael LaRosa, who worked as a television producer before serving as a spokesperson for former first lady Jill Biden. Hes become Americas assignment editor. Most presidents try to start their terms with a bang, seizing the moment when their influence could be at its peak. However, Trump is in a different league. Biden, a Democrat, spent 2 hours and 36 minutes talking on camera and used 24,259 words in his first week in office four years ago, according to numbers generated by Factba.se. Trump’s comparable stats: nearly 7 hours and 44 minutes and 81,235 words last week. That’s longer than watching the original Star Wars trilogy back-to-back-to-back, and more words than Macbeth, Hamlet and Richard III combined. It’s also much more than when Trump took office for his first term eight years ago. Back then, he was only on camera talking for 3 hours and 41 minutes and spoke 33,571 words. Trump has spent decades practicing the best ways to get people to pay attention to him. As a New York businessman, he fed stories to gossip columnists, added gold plating to buildings and slapped his name on every product that he sold. His efforts reached an apex with The Apprentice, the reality television show that beamed him into American living rooms. One of the things that has given him the advantage is that he thinks like an executive producer,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican communications strategist. “Hes constantly programming the next hour and trying to keep his audience engaged. A sign of what was to come arrived shortly after Trump was sworn in. He delivered an inaugural address and then promptly gave more remarks to supporters that were even longer than his speech. And then he spoke at a downtown arena, where people had gathered for a rally, and later he parried questions from reporters for nearly an hour in the Oval Office while signing executive orders. At one point, he turned to Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy. Does Biden ever do news conferences like this?” Trump said. “How many news conferences, Peter, has he done like this? Like this? Doocy responded. None, Trump said, answering his own question. On Friday, Trump presented a tour de force of talking, demonstrating that he’s far more willing to put himself in unscripted situations than Biden was. He spoke with reporters while leaving the White House in the morning. He talked to them again after landing in North Carolina, then again at a briefing on the recovery from Hurricane Helene, and then again while meeting with victims of the storm. Trump flew that afternoon to Los Angeles, where he conversed with local officials about the recent wildfires. Before boarding Air Force One to leave the city in the evening, he answered more questions from reporters on the tarmac. As his travels continued over the weekend, Trump spoke to reporters twice at the back of Air Force One as often as Biden did for his entire term. “Transparency is back! wrote longtime aide Margo Martin on social media. That’s not the word that Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, would use. Being accessible and being transparent are two different things, she said. Sometimes more talking doesn’t produce more clarity. One afternoon, Trump told reporters that there were no surprises when Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski decided to oppose Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon. The next morning, Trump said he was very surprised by their votes. Jamieson worries that the frenzied pace will exhaust people. More people will simply check out,” she said. “And thats a problem. An informed citizenry is an engaged citizenry. Kate Berner, who worked on Bidens communications staff, said Trump’s constant talking helps keep his adversaries off balance. By doing so much and saying so much, it is hard for people who oppose him to organize,” she said. “And it is hard for any one thing to take hold. But there’s also a risk for Trump, Berner said. If he’s not careful, she said, he could once again start wearig out his welcome with the American people. Chris Megerian, Associated Press Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.
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Anthony Obi never imagined the night of Jan. 7 would be the last time hed step inside his safe haven. The Houston rapper, known professionally as Fat Tony, has lived in the Altadena neighborhood for a year and says he and his neighbors were prepared for heavy winds and perhaps a few days of power outages. I totally expected, you know, maybe my windows are going to get damaged, and Ill come back in like a day or two and just clean it up, said the rapper. But residents like Obi woke up the following morning to news that thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods had been burned to ash, destroyed by flames that wiped out large areas of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Although the neighborhoods are on opposite ends of the county, they are known hubs for many of the citys creative community, housing filmmakers, actors, musicians and artists of various mediums. LA is not just rich, famous people who have giant mansions that were destroyed, said visual artist Andrea Bowers, who is assisting artists recover. So many members of our community lost everything, they lost all their artworks and their archives, thats irreplaceable, a lifetime of labor and a lifetime of research. A lot of my collectors lost their homes, said figurative and conceptual artist Salomón Huerta, who lost his Altadena home of three years to the Eaton Fire and worries the art scene in LA will downsize as a result of the wildfire. Before the fire, I was in talks with certain collectors. And then, after the fire, theyre not in a good place to talk. Im hoping that theres support so that the art scene can still thrive. But its going to be tough. Obi and Huerta lost not only personal treasures, business opportunities and homes but also vital equipment and professional archives, adding to their emotional burden. Huerta left behind slides and transparencies of past work that he had planned to digitize for an upcoming book. Everythings gone, Obi said. All of my stuff that is related to Fat Tony music that was in that house is gone, and it was the motherlode of it. From aftermath of one fire, a support network is born Kathryn Andrews never imagined shed experience another wildfire in her lifetime. The conceptual artist was forced to flee her Pacific Palisades neighborhood as smoke drew near, the second time in four years shes had to escape a wildfire. She lost her Juniper Hills property to the 2020 Bobcat fire, which burned a large section of rural Los Angeles County. Ive already experienced one home being burned. I think you have a different focus after that. Maybe we become a little bit less attached to material things. And we began looking at a bigger long-term picture, thinking about, you know, how we live together in community, how we live in relation to the land and how we can work together to solve this, she said. Andrews is the co-founder of relief effort Grief and Hope, which aims to support creatives financially as they enter the long road ahead and was founded alongside a group of gallery directors, art professionals and artists like Bowers, Ariel Pittman, Olivia Gauthier, and Julia V. Hendrickson. Our primary goal is getting people triage money for just whatever the most emergent need is, said Pittman. The fundraising effort began shortly after the fires broke out with a Go Fund Me seeking $500,000. They have now raised over $940,000 of their new $1 million goal via non-profit art space The Brick. As of Tuesday, Grief and Hope has received more than 450 inquiries, and Pittman says the funds will be evenly distributed to applicants. The deadline for artists to submit a needs survey has concluded, but the relief effort will continue fundraising until mid-March. Grief and Hope also has five different groups of volunteers providing peer-to-peer support, helping with medical needs, safety issues, and renters issues and collecting survey data to better serve their creative community. These are people who already have made very long term commitments in their work, including the five of us, towards building community and building sustainability around artists and art workers in our city and beyond, said Pittman. For Grief and Hope, creating a more sustainable future for artists throughout the city begins with affordable studio spaces and housing. Creative tools lost, and a long road ahead For photographer Joy Wong, losing her home of eight years meant losing the beauty of Altadena. She describes the overall area as a pocket of heaven. I didnt want to leave, said Wong who safely evacuated with her husband and 2-year-old daughter. We were just so in love with this house, and it wasnt just my house. It was also my studio space. Many, like Obi, Wong and Huerta, have started GoFundMe accounts. Meanwhile initiatives and relief efforts have popped up around Southern California ready to assist with clothing donations, art supplies, professional equipment for creatives and more. Im applying to everything, said Obi, who needs to replace his instruments and recording equipment. Wong said shes received much support from family, friends and colleagues. I think I just have to kind of lean on the community and get back into shooting, she said. I got to get all my gear back, too. Its going to be a long road, but itll be OK. How some artists see L.A.’s arts scene can be reborn Superchief Gallery co-founder and director Bill Dunleavy said he believes that this is an opportunity to rebuild long-needed infrastructure for the arts throughout Los Angeles. Quite a lot was lost and in the areas affected by the fire. And its going to affect rent prices and studio prices and art markets and everything else, said Dunleavy. Ive been so impressed with the amount of compassion that people feel and the sense of duty people have felt to help with this. … I hope that continues into the coming years. Creative director Celina Rodriguez said she hopes freelance artists and creatives continue to work and shoot production or projects throughout the city, rather than leaving because of the wildfires. Having lost so many locations that we would shoot, typically in Malibu, Topanga, the Palisades, all throughout. We will have to absolutely come together and figure out how we can continue working in Los Angeles … and urging people to shoot productions here, she said. Rodriguez and Dunleavy began collecting donations at the Downtown Los Angeles gallery and within 48 hours transformed it into a bustlingdonation center with over 150 volunteers. The duo are now working with displaced families to make sure their daily needs are being met. Dunleavy said the relief effort has only encouraged him to take this work beyond just the donation center and explore the possibilities of non-profit work for the community. All of our wheels are turning now that weve seen the power that just self-organizing can have. Leslie Ambriz, Associated Press
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The Army helicopter and regional American Airlines jet that collided over Washington are both workhorse aircraft that operate around the world on a daily basis. There were 60 passengers and four crew members on the jet, a Bombardier CRJ700, officials said. Three service members were on a training flight on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. None are believed to have survived the Wednesday night collision, which caused both aircraft to plunge into the frigid Potomac River. What to know about the aircraft: Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk There are about 5,000 Black Hawks in use around the world, according to the aviation site FlightGlobal.com. The twin-engine, four-blade helicopter is manufactured by Sikorsky, a subsidiary of defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The aircraft involved in Wednesday’s collision was an Army version. There are other variants made for the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, and for specialized duty such as intelligence gathering. The Black Hawk made its debut in 1979. The helicopters have been involved in numerous U.S. military operations, including the raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the invasions of Panama and Grenada. It is perhaps best known as the namesake aircraft in the 2001 war film Black Hawk Down, about a U.S. helicopter shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the civil war there. Others have crashed over the years on training missions. Bombardier CRJ700 The passenger jet was manufactured by Quebec, Canada-based conglomerate Bombardier Inc. The CRJ program was sold in June 2020 to the Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which no longer makes them but continues to produce parts. The twin-engine aircraft comes in several versions capable of seating between 68 and 78 passengers. It is a commonly used regional aircraft used for medium and shorter flights, with more than 900 produced since it was introduced in May 1999. Bombardier said in 2015 that the CRJ700 series accounted for 20% of all departure flights in North America, with about 200,000 flights per month. The plane in Wednesday’s crash was registered as N530EA and manufactured in 2010, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The jet was operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, PSA Airlines. Curt Anderson, Associated Press
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