WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that President Trump’s administration will take direct control of the composition of the daily press pool after winning an initial court decision Monday over its two-week exclusion of the Associated Press.
The change sets aside decades of historical deference to the White House Correspondents’ Association, but it’s unclear to what extent the move actually will change the mix of reporters given close access to Trump.
“It’s beyond time that the White House press operation reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925. A select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly over the privilege of press access at the White House,” Leavitt said at a press briefing.
“So by deciding which outlets make up the limited press pool on a day-to-day basis, the White House will be restoring power back to the American people who President Trump was elected to serve.”
Federal Judge Trevor McFadden declined to give the AP a temporary restraining order Monday restoring the outlet to the pool, from which it was barred by Trump officials for declining to update its influential Stylebook to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” pursuant to Trump’s official renaming.
“F–k the AP. They screwed us all,” exclaimed one journalist who participates in the press pool.
The correspondents’ association has held significant informal power over the past century, largely as a byproduct of carefully picking battles with presidents and avoiding public fights in favor of closed-door talks to resolve disagreements on access.
Association president Eugene Daniels of Politico said Leavitt’s announcement “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.”
“It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” Daniels said.
“For generations, the working journalists elected to lead the White House Correspondents’ Association board have consistently expanded the WHCA’s membership and its pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.”
Daniels said that the White House did not have “any discussions about today’s announcements” ahead of time with the organization’s board.
The association still assigns 49 seats in the White House briefing room and until Tuesday’s announcement curated the media organizations given direct access to the president in smaller rooms in the White House — such as the Oval Office and Roosevelt Room — and those traveling on Air Force One.
Although the change startled journalists, Leavitt announced a number of caveats that could blunt the practical impact — saying that the administration would retain access by the five major TV outlets who staff the television pool slot and maintain the dedicated radio slot.
It’s unclear if the White House press office will have a sustained interest in dramatically altering — rather than lightly supplementing — the composition of pools, which can involve significant legwork and coordination that’s been done free of charge by the correspondents’ association.
“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team. Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not, but we will also be offering the privilege to well deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility,” Leavitt said.
“Just like we added a new media seat in this briefing room, legacy media outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool, but new voices are going to be welcomed in as well,” she went on.
“As part of these changes, we will continue the rotation amongst the five major television networks to ensure the president’s remarks are heard far and wide around this world. We will add additional streaming services which reach different audiences than traditional cable and broadcast …,” Leavitt said.
“We will continue to rotate a print pooler who has the great responsibility of quickly transcribing the president’s remarks in disseminating them to the rest of the world. And we will add outlets to the principal rotation who have long been denied the privilege to partake in this experience but are committed to covering this White House.”
Traditionally, three news wires — the AP, Reuters and Bloomberg — have been part of every press pool on-campus and when the president is traveling.
There’s also a rotating print pool representative who writes reports sent to thousands of listserv subscribers — with that scribe pulled from a roughly 30-outlet group including The Post — and rotating radio and TV reps, along with photographers and TV crew.
On Air Force One trips, the correspondents’ association has an additional seat filled by a small group of outlets willing to foot the large bill for what formerly was a magazine seat.
While the president is at the White House, Dow Jones and Agence France-Presse reporters traditionally get into all events as part of an expanded “in-house” pool.
The Trump administration already has been relaxing access to Oval Office pool sprays that in the past were tightly restricted to members of the correspondents’ association pool — frequently adding a handful of additional outlets in a move that didn’t generate an outcry.
