“The first time I ever spoke to President Donald Trump was before he was even running for president in 2015,” Newsmax White House Correspondent Mike Carter reminisced about his humble career beginnings.
The young Carter had just left his marketing job at iHeartRadio and was working as a radio producer before heading to the Newhouse School at Syracuse University for his graduate degree.
“Trump had called in because he was planning on running in the New Hampshire primary, and we had him as a guest on our morning show,” Carter, a former NBC Page, said at the time. “I couldn’t believe that this guy was running for president.” Now, 10 years later, Carter is speaking with POTUS 45/47 every other week, but it took a lot of sacrifice and hard work to get there.
“[After graduate school] I started in Colorado Springs for an ABC station, then moved to Lafayette, Louisiana,” Carter recalled. “I was like a news and sports reporter, kind of splitting my week up covering local news, PTA meetings, house fires, etcetera, for part of the week, and then LSU football, the Saints, and New Orleans the other half of the week.”
But Carter wanted to be back in New York, so he took a part-time role working overnights as a radio producer for SiriusXM. He was crashing on a friend’s couch when he first heard about Newsmax.
“So I applied and became a booker for The Chris Salcedo Show,” Carter remarked.
Hoping for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Carter started doing stories on his phone during his time off. “The first story I did was when I went out to Staten Island. They were having a protest there over all the restaurants in New York being closed during the pandemic.”
He said, “There was this one place that was staying open and fighting the city policy to remain closed during the pandemic. So I shot video on my phone, recorded a little stand-up, and then I presented it to the network.”
The package made air that day. Shortly thereafter, Carter became the first correspondent Newsmax had in New York.
What separates Carter from his contemporaries is the way he tells a story. “It’s not just what’s happening, but why is this happening? And I think not enough news talks about why things are the way they are.” He added, “People can have their points of contention with either a Democrat regime or a Republican one, but what you can’t really argue with is ‘This person feels this way, and that’s why they’re doing the things that they’re doing.’”
The “why” factor is something Carter says he is always thinking about. He often develops questions to ask President Trump to get to the heart of “why.” He also listens to the “Mount Rushmore” of journalistic voices in his head.
“These aren’t just any old voices,” Carter said. They should be the voices of “people that you respect in your line of business, and people whose work you follow, and that you can kind of pick and choose different things from those people that will help you find your own path.”
One of Carter’s “Mount Rushmore” voices is the legendary Bob Dodson. A former NBC reporter, Dodson is not just someone Carter grew up watching; Carter also took a class taught by Dodson while in graduate school. “First, he would capture your attention with something that was maybe a little bit offbeat,” Carter said. “And that’s something that I really like to do.”
But for aspiring media personalities, Carter notes it’s not all glitz and glamour. There is a labor-of-love aspect to the industry, and by love, he means waiting.
“There’s a lot of waiting when you’re covering the president. A lot of the time, reporters are waiting. You’re waiting for a press briefing to begin. You’re waiting for an Oval Office meeting to begin.” He added, “If you’re traveling with the president, you’re in the press pool. A lot of times you’re in a van, sometimes for several hours, waiting for the president to arrive.”
“So a lot of it is just waiting for access to speak to the most powerful man on Earth, and you’re hoping that it’s a good day and he feels like talking to folks when he gets off the plane,” Carter said.
Proud of how far he has come in his career, the Newsmax correspondent said, “I’ve literally flown around the world covering Donald Trump, and it’s been an experience that I’m constantly thinking back on and thinking to myself, ‘Wow!’”
On a personal note, working with Mike Carter was always a pleasure. His ability to pivot when an element or package isn’t flawless is likely because he’s been in a producer’s shoes before. Carter’s packages are often witty because he knows a bit of humor can go a long way with the audience. He’s able to quell even the angriest of divas and has always kept his head steadfast on the task at hand, even as the building around him is proverbially on fire.
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
