
FILE — President Donald Trump throws pens used to sign executive orders to the crowd during an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File).
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced a sea change in how media will be allowed to cover the presidency. That change was foreshadowed in a recent court filing — as part of a parade of horribles.
Standing behind a lectern and flanked by flags and screens in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the government itself would henceforth select the journalists who make up the White House “press pool.”
The press pool is a nearly 144-year-old institution whose members have, for decades, been under the purview of the 111-year-old White House Correspondents Association, a nonprofit that is famously responsible for their annual, eponymous, comedy-themed dinner.
“As you all know, 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 in these intimate spaces,” Leavitt intoned. “Not anymore. I am proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows, and who listen to your radio stations. Moving forward, the White House press pool, will be determined by the White House Press Team.”