"Mr. President! You talked about some of the violence that’s been going on at dealerships,” a reporter yelled to President Trump as he stood next to Elon Musk and a Tesla parked near the White House lawn earlier this month.

“Some say they should be labeled domestic terrorists.”

“I’ll do that,” Trump interjected. “We’re going to stop it if we catch anybody doing it because they’re harming a great American company.”

Days later, Trump’s FBI would launch a task force dedicated to investigating and referring for prosecution suspects in a string of incidents protesting Musk at Tesla dealerships across the country.

It was one of several instances during the first three months of Trump’s second term in which a shouted question or suggestion from a media member has resulted in direct action from the president.

It’s a trend several reporters in the Washington press corps and national political insiders told The Hill this week underscores Trump’s intense focus on press coverage – and how the coverage can lead to new efforts by Trump to take actions that will create additional headlines – and new news cycles.

“It’s getting to the point where a reporter can just offhandedly mention something to him on camera and start an entire news cycle off of it,” said one White House correspondent. “It’s unclear if Trump is actually unaware of some of this stuff beforehand or is........

© The Hill