Trump’s C-SPAN call marks latest surprise post-midterm appearance

Livestream Menu President Donald Trump called C-SPAN’s new “Washington Journal Primetime” program Monday in an unannounced eight-minute appearance. The call followed a surprise White House briefing-room appearance with UFC CEO Dana White earlier Monday and a ballroom construction-site appearance Wednesday. These appearances came after Democrats won control of the House and Senate in the midterms, a major setback for Republicans. Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), left, and US President Donald Trump during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. Trump said the FBI is looking into Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang's affair with a woman who is reportedly suspected to have been a Chinese intelligence officer. Cross/The Washington Post/Bloomberg via Bloomberg | Bloomberg | President Donald Trump made an unexpected call into C-SPAN's evening broadcast Monday, extending a series of surprise appearances after Republicans' midterm election defeat. "It looks like we've got a call from the White House," host Mimi Geerges told viewers as Trump joined the debut of "Washington Journal Primetime." Trump congratulated Geerges on the launch before taking questions on immigration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Iran war. Asked what he watches on C-SPAN, Trump said he follows viewer call-ins to gauge public sentiment. "I like to watch the call-ins because it gives me a little of an indication of where we are," he said. The unannounced, eight-minute call followed another unexpected appearance earlier Monday, when Trump entered the White House briefing room alongside UFC CEO Dana White. Reporters were summoned so quickly that aides did not have time to attach the presidential seal to the podium, according to Reuters. It was Trump's first briefing room appearance in 198 days, according to a White House pool report. With the press secretary post vacant, Trump joked about offering White the job, to which the UFC chief declined. Trump said he had been having "a very bad press day," as he floated White as his next press secretary. Last Wednesday, a day after Republicans suffered substantial midterm losses, Trump also abruptly invited reporters to the construction site of his White House ballroom for his first public event since the election. Trump spent more than 20 minutes discussing White House construction and renovation projects, including the ballroom's Corinthian columns, marble flooring and the helipad, before turning to the election results during questions from reporters.