MLK weekend marks longest span without a press briefing in Trump presidency

The Martin Luther King Jr. weekend marks the longest span without a White House press briefing under the Trump presidency.

The latest White House press briefing was held Dec. 18. The 34 days since that briefing mark the longest stretch without a briefing, breaking the previous record of 29 days, according to ABC News.

{mosads}Once held daily, White House press briefings during the Trump administration have been few and far between. In the last four months of 2018, the White House held just five press briefings.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has yet to hold a briefing in 2019. Sanders also takes fewer questions from reporters per briefing, according to an analysis by the American Presidency Project.

Earlier this month, President Trump made a surprise appearance in the briefing room to push for a wall along the southern border, but he did not take any questions from reporters.

Despite the lack of press briefings, Trump himself has been an accessible president.

According to research by Martha Joynt Kumar, the director of the White House Transition Project, Trump is the second most accessible president post-Ronald Reagan. The research found he often engages in short question-and-answers as well as interviews. 

⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ is second most accessible President to the press since Reagan, according to research by respected ⁦@mkumar38⁩. Only Clinton faced questions more often. pic.twitter.com/Y0ZI0GKd7i

— WHCA (@whca) January 13, 2019

This story was updated on Jan. 22 at 1:10 p.m.