EXPERT ADVISORY: R00004 – 11 January 2017

In 15 years teaching American politics, Paul Hamilton has never seen anything like it.

“I’m surprised by how little he has changed from the primaries,” the associate professor in the Department of Political Science said of President-elect Donald Trump. “He doesn’t seem to have absorbed much of the sort of manners of the office.

“You would think meeting Obama, touring the Whitehouse, nominating people for Cabinet, that all of those things would have sobered his mind, but it doesn’t appear it has.”

Hamilton watched with interest Wednesday as Trump officially addressed the media for the first time since winning the election Nov. 8. Trump’s acrimonious relationship with the media continued as he called out certain reporters by name and wouldn’t take questions from CNN, calling the network “fake news.”

“The testiest I’ve ever seen Obama or Bush was nothing compared to that,” Hamilton said. “It was astonishing. He seems to treat the press as an irritant, which they can be, but he can’t treat them that way.”

Associate Professor of Political Science Paul Hamilton is available for interviews Thursday and Friday.

For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

* Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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