Say what you will about President Donald Trump's tortured relationship with the press, at least he's accessible.

Trump has brutalized the media and is a big reason trust has eroded in the fourth estate. He's belittled our work as "fake news" and leveled libelous accusations to convince the public we're making up all the negative things written about him.

He hates the press, a sentiment that is largely mutual. But he loves being the media's favorite subject.

On his first half-day back in office, Trump held a press conference. He held another one on the second day. On the third day he did a live interview with Fox News, an admittedly friendly outlet.

Along the way to the various stops on his calendar he paused to engage with reporters and answer a few questions. And on Friday, he held an impromptu press conference on the White House lawn before boarding his helicopter, and that night a town hall in California.

We've not had that sort of access to a president in four years. Former President Joe Biden went months at a time without holding formal press conferences and when he did, they were carefully managed.

His staff shielded him from spontaneous encounters with the media, stepping in to lead him away from unscripted situations.

When Biden sat down for television interviews, they were most often taped and sometimes edited to his advantage.

Biden's deteriorating mental and physical condition was so fiercely shielded by his handlers he was able to hide his decline until, inexplicably, they allowed him to walk onto a debate stage in June and melt down in front of the whole world.

Trump is not likely to spend his term sheltering in place in the White House. He craves attention and can't stand to be out of a single news cycle. And he baits the media to serve his purposes.

I covered Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young at a time when his press clippings were almost entirely negative. He could care less. The mayor understood the more the media attacked him, the more the people rallied to his side.

Same with Trump. His approval ratings and the ardor of his supporters are never higher than when he's under attack in the press.

He can't stay away from the media he demonizes.

Critics of the new administration have made a big deal of billionaire Elon Musk's outsized role in shaping the direction of this second Trump administration.

But Musk is operating in the wide open, where everyone can see and judge for themselves the propriety of his place beside the president.

We still have no idea who was running the White House during Biden's incapacitation. Who was making the critical policy decisions? They also appear to have been unelected aides-de-camp but were operating deep in the shadows.

There are upsides to all of this. Trump's openness extends to public information, as long as it's not embarrassing to him. On Thursday, he ordered the declassification of the final sealed documents in the John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, the Holy Grail for conspiracy theorists.

He's also a rolling breaking news story, sort of like the California wildfires. He generates headlines non-stop. With Trump in the Oval Office, there are no slow news days.

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