The White House Correspondents’ Association on Monday pushed back on the Trump administration’s planned takeover of the West Wing briefing room seating chart for journalists, vowing to fight the White House’s attempts to exert greater pressure on mainstream media outlets.
On Sunday, Axios reported that the White House may soon impose its own seating chart for reporters in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, infringing on one of the WHCA’s core functions.
“The White House should abandon this wrong-headed effort and show the American people they’re not afraid to explain their policies and field questions from an independent media free from government control,” the WHCA board said in a statement Monday morning.
“But if the White House pushes forward, it will become even more clear that the administration is seeking to cynically seize control of the system through which the independent press organizes itself, so that it is easier to exact punishment on outlets over their coverage.”
Tensions have mounted between the WHCA and the Trump administration over press access in recent weeks, with the White House taking control of the pool reporter rotation in February. While the move has given conservative media outlets access to President Donald Trump, the WHCA argues the White House made the change to exclude and punish outlets “over coverage they disagree with.”
The correspondents’ association cites the ongoing legal feud between the White House and the Associated Press, which has been banned from the press pool and official events in the Oval Office and Air Force One over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” Trump changed its name via an executive order.
The news agency argues it is keeping the gulf’s traditional name because of its international audience. Meanwhile, the Trump administration says press access to the president is a privilege rather than a constitutional right.
The WHCA’s support of the AP prompted the pool structure’s recent changes.
“If the White House is interested in a constructive relationship with the journalists that cover them, the solution isn’t complicated: first, commit to the government not punishing journalists for the content of their reporting, and second, engage with us on this,” the WHCA Board said.
The organization noted it contacted the White House on Sunday to discuss the reported seating chart shakeup with the administration.
Axios also reported that a senior White House official suggested it’s possible, albeit unlikely, that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt could push to become the organization’s president by amending its by-laws. The WHCA Board called such a proposition “ridiculous” and a “non-starter suggestion.”
Beyond favoring conservative reporters, the White House invited podcasters, such as Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire and Natalie Winters of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room, to participate in its first-ever Podcast Row last week. The event is intended to be recurring.
The WHCA maintains it has given access to “new” media outlets over the years.
Over the weekend, the WHCA canceled an upcoming appearance by anti-Trump comedian Amber Ruffin for its annual dinner scheduled for April 26. Instead of focusing on the “politics of division,” the organization said it wants to award its press correspondents “for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”
Trump has not indicated whether he will be attending the dinner next month, but his appearance remains unlikely after he skipped the dinners during his first term.