Press staffers as far back as the George W. Bush administration did so, he said. Presidents have tended to call on the reporters his aides have directed him to, he said. President Trump was the most likely to go off script and take questions from anyone, though Trump also made a habit of calling on reporters from outlets he knew were supportive of him.

But in their advance conversations, reporters rarely offer anything as specific as Subramanian’s topic; the typical answer is “news of the day,” which leaves the options for questioning the president open. “You don’t want to give away your question,” said the veteran reporter. “It’s incredibly bad form to do that.”

White House officials declined to speak on the record, and Subramanian didn’t respond to a request for comment.

[Kudos to Farhi for reporting this honestly. CNN’s only response was to claim that reporters always do this and that Republicans were “seizing®” on it. — Ed]