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Tourists love Los Angeles. Could the fires change that?

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Tourists love Los Angeles. Could the fires change that?

Travelers flying into Los Angeles last weekend were greeted by an apocalyptic sight: billowing clouds of smoke and the red-orange glow of flames against the glittering expanse of city lights.

The stark panorama, and shocking, ubiquitous video of the wildfires, were at sharp odds with images of sun-kissed beaches and glamorous Hollywood that L.A. relies on to draw the flocks of tourists who pump billions of dollars into the local economy each year.

As firefighters begin to bring under control the blazes that laid ruin to Pacific Palisades, parts of Malibu, and the hillside town of Altadena, tourism officials are looking for signs of what short- and long-term toll the disaster may take on L.A.’s prowess as a tourism destination.

“We’re very nervous,” said Jackie Filla, president and CEO of the Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles.

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“The first-blush look is obviously there’s a precipitous drop off in shorter-term reservations — people who were supposed to be here this week and next week. We’re seeing some long-term drop-off as well — not as much, but it’s certainly a trend we’re concerned about.”

By some measures, the fires struck as tourism in L.A. finally had recovered fully from the blow dealt by COVID-19. In 2023, the last full year for which statistics are available, Los Angeles tallied $40.4 billion in total tourism revenue, a record. That included 49.1 million visitors, a 3% dip from its 2019 pre-pandemic high.

Filla noted that no L.A County hotels or major tourist draws have been damaged in the fires and major conferences and conventions — a critical component of the tourism industry — are scheduled to go on as planned. The lineup includes the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, whose leadership voted Wednesday night to go ahead with their annual meeting later this month in downtown L.A. and to donate $100,000 to relief efforts.

And another major event, the Grammy Awards, are still scheduled for Feb. 2 in downtown’s Crypto.com Arena.

In normal times, organizers and attendees at these meetings and awards shows would book rooms without hesitation. However, with tens of thousands of people now displaced by the fires, the equation has become more complicated. “We’re very closely monitoring our conventions and conferences,” Filla said, because “everybody is concerned about not taking rooms away from the evacuees, but we have the capacity to do both.”

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Occupancy in Los Angeles hotels, which typically hits a low point in January, jumped from 59.3% to 65% as the Palisades and Eaton fires raged in the week that ended Jan. 11 “due to displacement demand from the fires,” lodging industry analyst CoStar found. The biggest surge came over the first three days of the blazes, when average daily rates in the area’s luxury hotels jumped by 22.7% over last year — a rise that may have been driven by evacuees moving into high-priced suites during what is normally a slow time, the company’s senior director of analytics Isaac Collazo said.

The city of Los Angeles includes about 44,000 hotel rooms; the county, roughly 100,000. L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said Thursday that about 88,000 people were under evacuation orders.

It remains to be seen whether the region’s recovery will be more like the New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Napa Valley’s rebound after a major wildfire in 2017 or Maui’s ongoing recovery effort since destructive wildfires in 2023.

In the aftermath of Katrina, travel to New Orleans fell to less than half its former level, then gradually recovered. It wasn’t until 2016 that the number of visitors to the city returned to pre-Katrina levels.

Napa and Sonoma counties, by contrast, bounced back relatively quickly after fires blackened more than 110,000 acres and killed 24 people in fall 2017. The fires left most vineyards and tourism infrastructure undamaged and by early 2018 hotel occupancy and revenue were ahead of the year before, according to a local tourism organization, Visit Napa Valley. Local and state officials said the recovery was aided by vigorous marketing, including spending by Visit California, the state’s main marketing organization.

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On Maui, where a fire in August 2023 claimed 102 lives and leveled most of Lahaina Town, a major tourist destination, recovery is ongoing. Visitor arrivals in November 2024 remained about 15% below their levels in 2022. Officials there are now pushing hard to bring tourists back following an initial period of mixed messages in which some were calling for travelers to stay away as the community tried to rebuild.

At Visit California, the state’s leading tourism organization, President and CEO Caroline Beteta said in a statement that “we need to make sure travelers understand that their visit helps the community — not hurts — and that the city’s hotels and businesses will be ready to welcome them.”

Beteta acknowledged that “we’re already hearing from restaurants and hotels saying they’re being impacted,” and said her team is at work on a recovery campaign stressing that “everyone, especially California residents, should consider planning a trip to Los Angeles to support its economic recovery.”

Adam Burke, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, also known as Discover Los Angeles, said, “it’s premature to really understand what the implications are going to be,” but until then, “we’re trying to use our platform to help those who have been directly affected.”

In the longer term, Burke said, he’ll be looking closely at data on web searches for Los Angeles as a destination, international bookings, airport arrivals and hotel occupancy. He noted that in a typical year, hotel tax revenues add more than $300 million to the city’s general fund — money that could helpful fuel recovery efforts.

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Despite the devastation of the fire areas, the vast majority of the region’s best-known tourism spots were undamaged by the fires. Though many parks and museums closed because of air quality or other concerns, several have reopened, including Griffith Park, the L.A. Zoo and Autry Museum of the American West on Thursday.

Overall consumer demand typically drops in the aftermath of a natural disaster, since fewer outside visitors to an area will lead to a reduction in leisure, hospitality and entertainment spending, said Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe, an assistant professor of economics at Middlebury, who was co-author of a study last year examining satellite data to understand fire activity and its effect on labor markets in counties across the U.S.

Leisure and hospitality is a sector that is particularly important for L.A. County, amounting to about 13.5% of the workforce, much higher than the median across counties, which hovers around 6%, Gauvin-Coulombe said. She did note, however, that destinations with more diverse economies — like that of Los Angeles — tend to be more resilient than those that are heavily dependent on one sector.

The disaster may also force the industry to contend with a shrinking labor force in the region, with fires tending to cause out-migration, she said. A slowing of employment growth can last for three years after a fire, she added.

“When people are traveling, they consider everything,” said Ray Patel, president of the Northeast Los Angeles Hotel Owners Assn. “It’s all perception to the guest. They might go, ‘oh, it’s too many fires.’ ”

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It’s an understandable impulse, he said: “We all want to put our heads down at night and make sure we feel safe.”

As Los Angeles looks to stabilize its tourism industry in the wake of the fires, it can rely on an important asset many cities don’t have — its tourism board has staff at seven offices abroad who work with counterparts in Australia, the United Kingdom, India and China.

At a moment when dramatic television images threaten to overshadow the facts of L.A. geography, Burke said, “we’re already working with the travel trade in real time,” aiming to “educate people around the world about why it’s still safe to responsibly travel to Los Angeles.”

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‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ heats up the box office, grossing $88 million domestically

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‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ heats up the box office, grossing  million domestically

The Na’vi won the battle of the box office this weekend, as “Avatar: Fire and Ash” hauled in a hefty $88 million in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend.

The third installment of the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ “Avatar” franchise brought in an estimated total of $345 million globally, with about $257 million of that coming from international audiences. The movie reportedly has a budget of at least $350 million.

Box office analysts had expected a big international response to the most recent film, particularly since its predecessor “Avatar: The Way of Water” had strong showings in markets like Germany, France and China.

In China, the film opened to an estimated $57.6 million, marking the second highest 2025 opening for a U.S. film in the country since Disney’s “Zootopia 2” a few weeks ago. (That film went on to gross more than $271.7 million in China on its way to a global box office total of $1.1 billion.)

The strong response in China is another sign that certain movies can still do well in the country, which was once seen as a key force multiplier for big blockbusters and animated family films but has in recent years cooled to American movies due to geopolitics and the rise of its domestic film industry.

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Angel Studio’s animated biblical tale “David” came in second at the box office this weekend, with an estimated domestic gross of $22 million. Lionsgate thriller “The Housemaid,” Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies’ “The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants” and “Zootopia 2” rounded out the top five.

The weekend’s haul likely comes as a relief to theater owners, who have weathered a roller coaster year.

After a difficult first three months, the spring brought hits like “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners” before the summer ended mostly flat. A sleepy fall brought panic to the exhibition business until closer to the Thanksgiving holiday, when “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2” drew in audiences.

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Do I have to transfer my 401(k) money when I retire?

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Do I have to transfer my 401(k) money when I retire?

Dear Liz: When I retired, I had a small 401(k) with about $12,000 in it. Instead of rolling that money into an IRA, I took a distribution and paid taxes on it. I had no immediate need for the remaining funds, so eventually I opened a new IRA account and deposited the money.

I now realize I should have put it in a Roth IRA so I wouldn’t face double taxation on the money. This is the stupidest thing I’ve done in recent memory. Is there any legal mechanism I can use to get that money out and into a Roth without paying taxes the second time?

Answer: You made a mistake, but probably not the one you think.

You can’t contribute to an IRA — or a Roth IRA, for that matter — if you don’t have earned income. So if you’ve fully retired, you should contact your IRA administrator and let them know you need to withdraw your “excess contribution” as well as any earnings the contribution has made.

If you contributed this year, you have until your tax filing deadline — typically April 15, 2026 — to remove the funds without penalty. If you contributed in a previous year, you’ll typically face a 6% excise tax for each year the money remained in your account.

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Now, a warning about financial mistakes: They tend to become more common as we age. That can be incredibly unsettling, especially to do-it-yourselfers used to handling finances competently on their own. Retirement is a good time to start implementing some guardrails to protect ourselves and our money.

Hiring a tax pro would be a good first step. Anything to do with a retirement fund should be run past this pro first to make sure you’re following the tax rules.

Dear Liz: In response to a reader who asked about creating a will, you suggested options for low-cost online resources. That is great! But, I would encourage you to remind readers to designate beneficiaries on accounts and assets where that option is available.

While they should still have a will, many readers may not know that they can add beneficiaries to brokerage, checking, and savings accounts (in addition to IRA and retirement accounts) so that their assets will pass directly to the designated beneficiaries and not have to go through probate with the extra hassle, time and expense.

For those without a trust, designating beneficiaries may be the easiest way to pass on many of their assets. In California (and some other states), even houses may pass without probate with a transfer-on-death deed. Many readers may not know about the option to add beneficiaries, and you would do your readers a service by educating them about it.

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Answer: Anyone adding beneficiaries to accounts needs to be aware of some major potential drawbacks.

A big one involves settling the estate. If all available funds are transferred directly to beneficiaries, the person settling the estate may not have enough cash to do their job.

Beneficiary designations can also result in unintentionally unequal distributions if there’s more than one heir, and complications if the beneficiaries die first or aren’t changed appropriately as life circumstances change.
That’s not to say that beneficiary designations are the wrong choice, but they’re certainly not a one-size-fits-all option.

Dear Liz: Your recent column about advanced directives said that people could get a free version at PrepareForYourCare.org. I found there is a charge. Is this for all online directives?

Answer: Prepare is a free site supported by donations, grants and licensing agreements. If you were asked to pay, you either clicked the donate button or weren’t on the correct site.

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Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the “Contact” form at asklizweston.com.

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President Trump Wants to Be Everywhere, All the Time

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President Trump Wants to Be Everywhere, All the Time

To understand how Mr. Trump has achieved this omnipresence, The New York Times reviewed the first 329 days of his second term, finding at least one instance each day when he attracted the public’s attention to himself and his actions.

The review encompassed more than 250 media appearances, more than 320 official appearances, and more than 5,000 Truth Social posts or reposts. The analysis shows that while Mr. Trump has lagged his predecessors in his number of official appearances, he has pursued a raft of innovative methods to force himself into the public consciousness on a daily, and sometimes even hourly, basis.

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The battery of activity started from the moment he was inaugurated, when he traveled from the Capitol Building to the Capital One Arena to publicly sign a flurry of executive orders.

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Since then, he has stayed in the public eye in part by doing things no president has ever done. High-stakes Oval Office meetings, like his negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, are held on-camera and broadcast live on global news networks. His Q.-and-A. sessions with reporters frequently last an hour or more.

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He regularly airs his opinions – on social media, in discursive asides at rallies – about idiosyncratic subjects that range widely across the zeitgeist, from Sydney Sweeney’s sexy denim ads to the redesigned logo of the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain to the mysterious fate of the aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

And his engagement with the news media has soared well beyond the start of his first administration.

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Through Dec. 14, Mr. Trump took reporters’ questions on 449 occasions, compared with 223 during the same period of his first term. On average, Mr. Trump has interacted with journalists roughly twice a day, doubling his rate from 2017, according to Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University political scientist who tracks presidential press interactions. Mr. Trump limits which news outlets can ask questions at small events, but in sheer volume, he is the most media-accessible modern president, and far outpaces his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“Reporters will be in my office asking me for the president’s reaction to a breaking news story,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in an interview. “And I’ll just say to them, ‘I don’t know, why don’t you ask him yourself in 30 minutes?’”

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Finding the Cameras

President Trump’s media appearances have soared this year, more than doubling both the Biden administration’s and those of his own first term.

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Note: Media appearances include interviews, opinion pieces, position papers, press conferences and informal Q.-and-A.s. Source: Roll Call Factbase. The New York Times

Many of his public moments go viral online, like his diatribe about restoring the name of the Washington Redskins, or the A.I.-generated video meme he posted of himself dribbling a soccer ball with Cristiano Ronaldo in the Oval Office. They take on a life of their own, rippling across social media and dissected and amplified by influencers and mass media platforms alike.

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The result is a president whose not-so-inner monologue is injected into our daily lives in myriad ways, when we are watching TV on the weekends or idly scrolling the web – a Greek chorus for our national narrative.

“He’s the most ubiquitous president ever,” said Douglas Brinkley, the presidential historian.

The media strategy aligns with his political strategy.

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Dating back to his years as an outspoken real estate developer and reality TV star, Mr. Trump has relished being unavoidable for comment. But at age 79, he has been outdoing his younger self. And there is a logic to his logorrhea.

Mr. Trump’s allies often speak of the political benefits of flooding the zone: pursuing so many policies, ideas, and dramatic restructurings of the normal ways of governance as to overwhelm the system. “All pedal, no brake,” as Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s one-time adviser, has called it.

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“We joke internally that he is our ultimate director of communications,” Ms. Leavitt said. “He has incredible media instincts, and he is the final decision maker on all policy, and he has been in a ‘flood the zone,’ ‘do as much as possible’ mindset since he walked into the Oval Office on Jan. 20.”

All presidents benefit from the awesome news-making powers of the office, with its agenda-setting influence over a dedicated global press corps. But Mr. Trump has outstripped his predecessors in whipsawing the public’s attention onto matters small and large – and limiting the level of scrutiny that any one shocking remark or policy proposal receives.

“People can really only focus on a handful of things a day,” said Bill Burton, a deputy White House press secretary under former President Barack Obama. “This attention flood is working for Trump because he is able to do an extraordinary amount of executive actions and very little of it can get attention.”

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Or as Mr. Brinkley put it: “He plays to win the day, every day, around the clock.”

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His commentary takes on a life of its own.

One of Mr. Trump’s political assets is his instinct for virality.

With a natural feel for the web, Mr. Trump has a knack for amplifying wacky memes and pop culture curios that can drive days of online discourse. Sometimes, coverage of his offhand remarks or late-night social media posts can crowd out the more significant, norm-shattering changes he is making to American governance.

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Late one Friday night in May, the president posted an obviously A.I.-generated image of himself as the pope. It struck a nerve.

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Mr. Trump had already courted controversy days earlier, after the death of Pope Francis on April 21.

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“I’d like to be pope,” the president told reporters who asked about who should become the next pontiff. “That would be my number one choice.”

The comment disturbed some Catholics, who said the notion was crude and insensitive. That reaction seemed only to prompt Mr. Trump to double down, posting the A.I.-generated image to his Truth Social account days later. By the weekend it had become a cultural phenomenon, mocked on “Saturday Night Live” and called out by experts as an example of misleading A.I. content.

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After Mr. Trump posts the A.I. image …

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May 2

Trump posts A.I. image of himself as Pope

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… some Catholics were outraged, prompting a news cycle focused on the controversy …

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There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.

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May 3

NYS Catholic Conference says “do not mock us”

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May 3

“Saturday Night Live” covers fake image

May 3

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Vatican asked about image, declines to comment

May 4

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Cardinal Joseph Tobin of New Jersey criticizes image as “not good”

May 4

JD Vance defends Trump on X, calling it a joke

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… before Mr. Trump suggested he had nothing to do with it.

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5

Says “the Catholics loved it”

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Mr. Trump, who is not Catholic, had plenty of defenders, too. They said his commentary and the A.I. image were simply jokes, part of the president’s unique comedic style.

“As a general rule, I’m fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen,” Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, wrote on X.

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In his quest for attention, the president is often aided by a cottage industry of right-wing influencers and activists who are primed to syndicate, reinforce and defend whatever content he pushes out each day. For this conservative media ecosystem, Mr. Trump’s messaging and commentary are the raw fuel that drives clicks, shares and views.

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On June 7, the president’s visit to a raucous U.F.C. fight – complete with a “Trump dance” entrance into the arena – generated an immediate spike in online interest, including about 50,000 posts on X. Five days later, when he promoted a “Trump gold card” visa, his announcement led to roughly 30,000 posts on X.

A barrage that distracts from bad news.

One pattern in Mr. Trump’s behavior: When his administration is faced with bad news, he launches a fusillade of distraction.

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This can take the form of outlandish, out-of-left-field claims about political opponents. Or he might weigh in on a pop culture subject far afield from Washington politics – from the ratings of late-night hosts like Seth Meyers to the physical appearance of a megastar like Taylor Swift.

The events of July 2025 offer a case in point.

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As the Jeffrey Epstein files returned to the news – along with speculation that Mr. Trump might appear in them – the president embarked on a breathtaking series of tangents. Mr. Trump claimed without evidence that former President Bill Clinton had bankrolled an effort by senior intelligence officials to frame him for a crime, mused about stripping the actress Rosie O’Donnell of her U.S. citizenship, and accused the singer Beyoncé of accepting millions of dollars to endorse his erstwhile rival, former Vice President Kamala Harris.

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On July 8, the F.B.I. said it would not declassify more Epstein files.

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July 8

F.B.I. publishes memo about Epstein files

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Over the following days, Mr. Trump seemed to lash out in every direction.

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10

Claimed intelligence officials tried to frame him

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10

Pushed to defund NPR and PBS

10

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Directed ICE to arrest protesters

12

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Threatened Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship

15

Claimed Adam Schiff engaged in mortgage fraud

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On July 18, the Justice Department filed a request to unseal grand jury testimony about Mr. Epstein, again raising questions about Mr. Trump’s involvement. The president promptly lobbed insults at late-night talk show hosts, dismissed the Epstein affair as “fake news” and shared fresh claims about a supposed Obama administration plot to undermine him after the 2016 election.

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On July 18, the Department of Justice filed a request — later denied — to unseal grand jury testimony.

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July 18

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Request filed to unseal grand jury testimony

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Over the following days, Mr. Trump bounced from topic to topic.

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20

Criticized Washington Commanders name

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Obama himself manufactured the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, and numerous others participated in this, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!. Irrefutable EVIDENCE. A major threat to our Country!!!

21

Called the “Russia hoax” the “crime of the century”

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22

Called Epstein controversy “fake news”

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22

Criticized Kimmel and Fallon

24

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Criticized Federal Reserve chairman

On July 25, The Wall Street Journal published a major scoop: The paper had unearthed a risqué birthday letter that Mr. Trump had apparently written to Mr. Epstein in 2003. Mr. Trump responded with his attack on Beyoncé and revived his threat to revoke the broadcast licenses of TV networks. Then he announced the imminent construction of an enormous gilded ballroom at the White House, at a cost of $200 million. (He has since revised the cost upward to $400 million.)

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Asked if there was a deliberate strategy to distract from negative news, Ms. Leavitt noted that every administration seeks to minimize unhelpful headlines.

“Yes, there have been times in which we’ve tried to do that, but also often it just happens naturally, because the president is willing to weigh in on so many subjects,” she said. “Sometimes it’s really not deliberate. It’s just him speaking his mind on whatever news cycle or news story is brought to him in that moment.”

He has added tricks to his arsenal.

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Mr. Trump’s devotion to Truth Social mirrors the hair-trigger Twitter habit of his first term; on one recent December evening, he posted 158 times between 9 p.m. and midnight. And he has continued to appear on Fox News with certain preferred hosts.

But this year, he has added to his media arsenal by appearing in many more public spaces that fall outside of a president’s typical itinerary.

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Mr. Trump has stopped by a Washington Commanders N.F.L. game, popped up in the New York Yankees locker room, attended the Ryder Cup golf tournament and the men’s tennis final at the U.S. Open, sat ringside at numerous U.F.C. fights, and traveled to the Daytona 500. He is the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. When FIFA staged the Club World Cup final in New Jersey, Mr. Trump not only attended, but joined the winning team onstage for the trophy ceremony.

The net effect is a sense of inescapability, that no corner of American life remains Trump-free – which itself amounts to a potent expression of presidential authority and command. “His power, in part,” said Mr. Burton, the former Obama aide, “comes from the attention that people give him, or that he forces on them.”

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Can it ever be too much?

In the fall of 2009, President Barack Obama appeared on David Letterman’s talk show, gave interviews to CNBC and Men’s Health magazine, and made the rounds of all five major network Sunday shows. Washington was abuzz about whether he was overexposed.

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That debate sounds quaint today. But the question of whether a president can be too visible remains open.

“The public is being desensitized” to Mr. Trump’s omnipresence, argued Mr. Brinkley, the historian. “It starts becoming blather. The enemy for Trump isn’t Democrats; it’s the public being bored with the show.”

Ms. Leavitt said that if there was a risk to his ubiquity, “President Trump would not be president right now.” She added: “He is a businessman who speaks his mind and tells it like it is, and sometimes people don’t like that. But obviously the vast majority of our country does, or else he wouldn’t be in this office.”

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During Mr. Trump’s first term, the public eventually tired of his frenzied pace. And in some ways, Mr. Trump appears to be slowing down physically as he approaches his 80th birthday in June (which he will celebrate in part by staging a nationally broadcast U.F.C. fight on the White House lawn). He has appeared to doze at some Oval Office meetings, and he is holding fewer formal public events than he did at this point in 2017.

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Still, Mr. Trump and his team have embraced the everywhere-all-at-once nature of modern media. Average Americans, busy with work and family, do not tune in for daytime news conferences or Cabinet meetings. And 6:30 p.m. newscasts and local newspapers are no longer the primary vessels by which Americans learn about their commander-in-chief.

Instead, politics now suffuses our lives as a kind of ambient noise – via TikTok videos, social media posts, YouTube talk shows and family Facebook messages – never fully separate from our leisure pursuits. “Right now the game is attention, in terms of what’s culturally breaking through,” Mr. Burton said. “The fact that so much message exists is the point.”

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Mr. Trump has both propelled this merging of culture and politics, and continues to strategically exploit it. In December, he became the first president to personally host the Kennedy Center Honors, comparing himself onstage to Johnny Carson and musing that he would do a better job than Jimmy Kimmel.

“This is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center,” Mr. Trump told the crowd. “Not even a contest. There has never been anything like it.”

His performance will air in prime time on CBS on Dec. 23.

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Photo and video sources: Graham Dickie/The New York TimesDoug Mills/The New York TimesRoll Call Factba.sePBSMauro Pimentel/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesKenny Holston/The New York TimesThe New York TimesAnnabelle Gordon/ReutersEric Lee/The New York TimesFoxCheriss May for The New York TimesWilfredo Lee/Associated PressMargo Martin, via StoryfulMark Abramson for The New York TimesGlobal NewsAl Drago/Getty ImagesFox NewsDave Sanders for The New York TimesPete Marovich for The New York TimesTed Shaffrey/Associated Press Show all

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