One statistic should put to rest all the hyperbolic claims that President Donald Trump is somehow shutting down the free press.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that her office will be taking away the White House Correspondents’ Association’s “monopoly” power and deciding which outlets will cover Trump in limited-space settings like the Oval Office or Air Force One.

The WHCA represents the traditional media outlets that cover the White House, and they mostly tend to have a leftward bias. In the past, that group has determined which reporters would make up the pool to cover special events.

Leavitt noted under the new policy that five major television networks — Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS — will continue to rotate through the pool, so there is always someone to capture video of what happens during a limited-space event. But she added there will be new print and radio outlets added into the mix.

.@karolineleavitt: “For decades, you have a group of journalists based here in Washington D.C. who dictate which reporters go into the most intimate spaces of the American presidency… Moving forward we’re going to expand the pool’s access.. We’re going to bring in new voices.” pic.twitter.com/JD0WR5NGX9

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) February 26, 2025

The traditional outlets will continue to have their spots in the White House briefing room and will have access to work on the grounds, where there are often outside press gaggles or larger media events inside, such as when Trump held a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron Monday in the East Room.

So it hardly seems Trump is shutting down the free press.

In fact, the National Journal reported Monday that the president took 1,009 questions from the media during his first month in office. That’s over seven times more than former President Joe Biden took during the same time period.

For his second term, “It took Trump only three days to eclipse the 141 questions former President Biden took in his first month; Trump took 164 questions by the end of his third day. That day, he also went past the known count of 161 questions in former President [Barack] Obama’s first month in 2009, though that carries an asterisk because transcripts don’t exist for most of the interviews he granted,” the Journal said.

???? NEW: Questions from the press taken in the first month, various presidents

???? Barack Obama: 161
???? Donald Trump [2017]: 199
???? Joe Biden: 141
???? Donald Trump [present]: 1,009

National Journal pic.twitter.com/wIgNxWa3wa

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 26, 2025

Nonetheless, that did not stop overwrought left-wing media claims that Trump was shutting down the free press by taking over who covers him at certain events.

For example, Politico headlined, “White House seizes control of press pool, will decide which outlets cover events with president.” But that makes it sound like a much bigger move than it is, suggesting that such will happen in all cases, rather than in limited spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One.

And New York Times reporter and MSNBC analyst Peter Baker posted on social media platform X, “Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.”

Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) February 25, 2025

He added, “Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn’t pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions. Trump has just declared that he will.”

I guess Baker forgot that the Biden administration revoked 442 White House press passes in 2023. Leavitt announced late last month that her team is working to reinstate those, along with expanding the briefing room to new media outlets.

Karoline Leavitt announces that Trump is restoring press passes for 440 journalists who were kicked out of the White House briefing room during the Biden admin — and is issuing an open invitation for people to join the MSM in the briefing room. pic.twitter.com/9KUwZdqvBn

— August Takala (@RudyTakala) January 28, 2025

Baker also complained that Trump is not allowing the Associated Press into these limited-space events, due, in part, to a spat with the outlet over refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America after the president renamed it in January.

But, “In 2013 the Obama administration obtained the records of 20 Associated Press office phone lines and reporters’ home and cell phones, seizing them without notice,” according to the AP. So the Obama administration was surveilling the free press.

Further, the Obama DOJ spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen when the administration did not like information he reported on in 2009 that had been leaked.

Case against Fox’s Rosen, in which O admin is criminalizing reporting, makes all of the other “scandals” look like giant nothing burgers.

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 20, 2013

So spare me the “Trump is Vladimir Putin” rhetoric. The free press is alive and well in the U.S., and Trump is actually engaging with the media more than any president, perhaps ever.

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.