Trump, Netanyahu nix White House press conference
The White House on Monday opted to nix a formal press conference that would have had President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taking questions from a wider swath of reporters, choosing instead for the two leaders to face the small group of media in the Oval Office.
The president’s daily guidance indicated that Trump would participate in a bilateral meeting with Netanyahu at 2 p.m. followed by a press conference in the East Room of the White House just 30 minutes later.
A White House official told The Hill that the press conference wasn’t canceled but will instead take place in the Oval Office.
Trump has frequently opened the Oval Office to the media to take questions while sat beside foreign leaders. Typically, those visits are accompanied by a formal press conference in which reporters from the U.S. and from the foreign leader's country ask both leaders questions in the East Room.
Moments after the press conference was stripped from the schedule, Netanyahu arrived at the White House. The two leaders entered the West Wing just before 1:30 p.m.
The White House media team told reporters who were slated to attend the press conference that the spray will be livestreamed, which only happens seldomly from the Oval Office.
Netanyahu is the first international leader to visit the White House after the president’s tariff announcement, during which he said he would put a 17 percent tariff on imported goods from Israel.
The prime minister’s office said before the visit that the two leaders “will discuss the tariff issue, the efforts to return our hostages, Israel-Turkey relations, the Iranian threat and the battle against the International Criminal Court.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened sharply down on Monday morning, hitting negative 1,500 points by 9:40 a.m. EDT. Investors were bracing for a tough Monday after the Dow lost nearly 4,000 points over Thursday and Friday following Trump’s announcement on Wednesday.
Updated 1:44 p.m.