Jonathan Swan

Jonathan V. Swan (born 7 August 1985) is an Australian political reporter for The New York Times. He won an Emmy Award for his 2020 interview with then-U.S. president Donald Trump.

Early life
Swan was born and raised in Australia. He is Jewish. Swan is the son of physician, journalist, and broadcaster Norman Swan. He began his career at The Sydney Morning Herald and later moved to the United States and in 2014, held a yearlong fellowship with the American Political Science Association. He remained in the U.S. and resumed his career in journalism in 2015.

Career
Swan joined The New York Times in 2023. He had previously covered the White House, Congress, and political campaigns for Axios. Swan worked at other publications in the U.S. and Australia, including The Hill and The Sydney Morning Herald.

In August 2020, Swan conducted an interview with President Trump for Axios on HBO. During the interview, Swan pointedly questioned and fact-checked numerous false, misleading, or bizarre statements as the President spoke them. The New York Times media columnist Ben Smith wrote that Swan's was "perhaps the best interview of Mr. Trump’s term".

Controversy
In March and April 2019, HuffPost and Wired reported that Axios had paid a firm to improve its reputation by lobbying for changes to the Wikipedia articles on Axios and Swan.

Recognition
As a member of the Sydney Morning Herald in the Canberra Press Gallery, Swan was presented with the Wallace Brown Award in 2014 for most outstanding young journalist. In 2016, Politico named Swan one of "16 Breakout Media Stars." In 2020, The Jerusalem Post named Swan in its list of the world's 50 most influential Jews. In 2021, Axios was awarded an Emmy Award in the Best Edited Interview category for "President Donald J. Trump - An Interview" by Jonathan Swan, who accepted the award. The White House Correspondents' Association presented Swan the 2022 Aldo Beckman award for "overall excellence in White House coverage."

Personal life
Swan married American reporter Betsy Woodruff of Politico on 14 September 2019. They have two children. Swan became an American citizen in July 2024