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A look at the impromptu — and slightly odd — ‘Fox & Friends’ interview with Trump

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

Donald Trump made an impromptu appearance on “Fox & Friends” Friday, June 15, 2018:

  • “Fox  & Friends” cohost Steve Doocy, who was in town covering the annual Congressional softball game Thursday night and was slated to join Fox’s morning show from the White House.
  • According to the Associated Press, Doocy wasn’t expected to interview any guests — the White House offered a trade representative but the network turned it down.
  • Doocy apparently wasn’t able to find his White House press credentials, so when the show started at 6 a.m. eastern, he was still outside the White House and didn’t appear at the top of the show.
  • At 7:50 a.m., Trump noted the show’s satellite anchor on the lawn and tweeted “Maybe I’ll have to take an unannounced trip down to see them?”
  • Since Trump’s previously announced scheduled did not have any public events until 11 a.m., most of the White House Press Corp hadn’t arrived for the day, but the tweet drew attention and some came in.
  • Word then got to Fox that Trump was serious in making an appearance — but Doocy wasn’t aware if it would be a “drop by” or more.
  • Trump emerged from the White House, after the Secret Service cleared the area, and walked, along with a growing crowd of reporters, to Fox’s covered live shot booths on the northwest corner of the White House grounds.

  • All of this was captured live by Fox and other networks and at least one camera person fell down during the scuffle.

  • As the cameras followed Trump’s path into the Fox booth, viewers were treated to a rare view of what it looks like from the other side of the multiple White House live shot booths that the various broadcast and cable networks use.
  • Although typically only equipped with a single camera, they can be set up with more than one — and MSNBC has even hosted an entire interview-style show from its booth.

  • At one point, Fox punched up the live shot from the booth, showing Doocy waving for Trump to come up.

  • Trump then stepped into the booth next to Doocy, who had to clip a mic on Trump’s lapel.

  • During the course of the interview, the Trump appeared to slowly encroach on Doocy’s space, so much so that Trump, who originally was camera left, entered up being almost in the center of the frame.
  • During the entire interview, a group of press can be seen in the background filming and snapping pictures of the action — along with Secret Service agents and White House staffers.
  • Given the small size of the broadcast booths, Fox couldn’t adequately pan right to frame the interview better since it would have shown part of the dark green walls of the booth — despite efforts to avoid this, the wall did appear at times on the far right side of the frame.
  • After the Fox interview wrapped, Trump exited the booth and gave an impromptu press conference of sorts to the gathered crowd of reporters.

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