"We're all a product of our path to the current moment, and my path is a little bit different," Michael says. He has worked his way up from covering exurban news to writing about the President for POLITICO. And he says that journey, which included stories about a dead sheepand a woman who disappeared inside her own home, helps him today. "My path was through small areas and rural areas in New York state and in Florida ... it can't hurt when I go out to quote-unquote Trump country—which is to say, most of the country—and talk to people."

Michael also talked about his first lucky break in the business, how a lack of access can sometimes be liberating, and why he considers his audience to be just about every single person on planet Earth.