White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a major blow to the White House press corps during Tuesday’s press briefing, taking away some of the power the organization once held.
Leavitt announced Tuesday that the White House press pool, the select group of reporters assigned each day to cover the president and transcribe and syndicate his remarks, will no longer be dictated by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), but instead by the press office. Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades, according to Leavitt, will still be a part of the press pool but new media outlets will be added at the White House press office’s discretion.
“As you all know for decades, a group of D.C. based journalists the White House Correspondents’ Association has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States, and these most intimate spaces. Not anymore,” Leavitt said. (RELATED: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Announces Shake Up To White House Briefing Room)
She added that major TV and radio outlets would continue to be rotated through the press pool. However, outlets who have been excluded from the press pool will be added by the White House on a rotational basis.
“As I have said since the first day behind this podium, 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 D.C. based journalists should no longer have a monopoly over the privilege of press access at the White House. All journalists, outlets and voices deserve a seat at this highly coveted table,” Leavitt said.
“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,” she added.
WHCA President Eugene Daniels responded to the news, saying that it “tears at the independence of the free press.” (RELATED: Comedian Amber Ruffin Reveals She Will Go Full Liberal Hack At WHCA Dinner, Doesn’t Want Trump To Attend)
“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 wrote.
“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,” he continued, adding that he received no heads up that the move would be happening or announced at the press briefing.
Ahead of Karoline’s first ever press briefing, I overheard some WH correspondents whispering: “They don’t have the power to change anything, right?”
Today there were gasps when Leavitt announced the change to the press pool. https://t.co/mgj5MbaHPR
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) February 25, 2025
The announcement from the White House followed its legal victory over The Associated Press regarding its decision to use the Gulf of Mexico in its stories, rather than the Gulf of America — the new name for the body of water designated under Trump’s executive order. The AP filed a lawsuit on Friday against members of the White House after it had been barred from the press pool, the Oval Office and Air Force One over its decision to refuse to call the Gulf of America by its new name.
The AP’s injunctive relief to end the ban on its access was denied on Monday by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP wrote in the lawsuit.
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