Donald Trump stood in front of the cameras at the White House, ready to speak.
There was just one problem.
No one could hear him.
As the president took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the White House’s new helipad on Monday, viewers watching the event were left staring at footage of Trump speaking — while the sound of his voice was nowhere to be heard.
And the reason was directly connected to the escalating fight between Trump and the news media.
Just days earlier, Trump had banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the outlets of publishing “fiction or lies” about his administration.
The three organizations have since sued the Trump administration, arguing that the move violates their First Amendment rights.
But the fallout quickly became much bigger.
ABC, CBS, Fox News, NBC and CNN make up the rotating television pool that provides live coverage of the president’s events and shares the footage with other news organizations. After CNN was prevented from carrying out its assigned pool duties, the other networks announced they would suspend pool coverage of presidential events rather than provide a replacement.
Then came the helipad ceremony.
Nobody could hear a word
The White House feed showed Trump speaking during the ribbon cutting, but without the normal pool equipment, there was no usable audio of his remarks.
Even Newsmax, a conservative network, pointed out the problem while airing the footage.
“There is no microphone because the pool cameras aren’t there,” a Newsmax anchor told viewers.
The anchor then added:
“So maybe this is one example of this backfiring just a little bit … the ramifications are right here — can’t hear what the president is saying.”
The awkward footage quickly spread online.
