President-elect Trump announces first press conference in six months

The 'general news conference' is set to take place on 11 January in New York City.

Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago — Donald Trump speaks to press outside his Mar-a-Lago estate Reuters

US President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans for his first press conference since 27 July 2016, making it the first he will have held since winning the presidency in November. Trump tweeted on Tuesday (3 January) night that the conference will be held on 11 January in New York City, describing it as a "general news conference".

Trump had originally stated that he would hold a press conference on 15 December after questions about his relationship with the media continued to circle, but earlier that week he postponed, tweeting that he would hold a press conference on how his children would take over his business "in the near future".

The President-elect's reluctance to face the press pack is unusual for recent presidents. George W Bush held a press conference two days after Al Gore's concession and Barack Obama held one three days after his initial election in 2008.

However, some supporters have questioned why Trump should hold press conferences at all, with many thinking that media organisations have been unduly hostile to the incoming leader. Former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich suggested in November that Trump should not hold them: "The news media so totally disgraced itself in this election, if I were Trump I would just say no," he told USA Today.

During Trump's last press conference he said that he "hoped" Russia would hack Hillary Clinton to find her deleted emails, later saying that he was being "sarcastic". With Russian hacking dominating news during December, it's likely that the topic will come up again.

So will his relationship with congressional Republicans, who today speedily U-turned on plans to gut the congressional independent ethics watchdog after Trump tweeted: "Do they really have to make [the proposal]... their number one act and priority?"

The president-elect has so far preferred to make most of his announcements through Twitter, with some questioning whether this will continue once he's in the Oval Office.