President Donald Trump’s administration will now control which members of the media are allowed to participate in the White House press pool, rendering void the White House Correspondents’ Association, which for decades has determined which outlets have access to the president, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday.
“The White House Correspondents’ Association has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore,” Leavitt said in a press briefing. “I am proud to announce that we are going to give 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,” she added. “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’s announcement comes after a judge granted the Trump administration a temporary ruling that allows it to ban the Associated Press from pooled events. The White House barred the AP from events after the outlet refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The WHCA has represented White House reporters for 111 years and decides which outlets cover the president when media access is limited. The organization’s president, Eugene Daniels, said the Trump administration’s “move 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. “Since its founding in 1914, the WHCA has sought to ensure that the reporters, photographers, producers and technicians who actually do the work — 365 days of every year — decide amongst themselves how these rotations are operated, so as to ensure consistent professional standards and fairness in access on behalf of all readers, viewers and listeners.”
White House officials did not notify the WHCA board before they made today’s announcement, Daniels added.
The shakeup is part of the Trump administration’s focus on a “new media landscape.” White House officials added a “new media” seat to the briefing room in January to give “independent journalists, podcasters and social media influencers” greater access, Leavitt said at the time.
Senior White House correspondent for Fox News and WHCA board member Jacqui Heinrich criticized the administration’s decision as one that would “give power to the White House.”
“The WHCA is democratically elected by the full-time White House press corps,” Heinrich said on X. “WHCA has determined pools for decades because only representatives FROM our outlets can determine resources all those outlets have – such as staffing – in order to get the President’s message out to the largest possible audience, no matter the day or hour.”
The White House said in a court filing against the AP that media outlets’ access to the president is not “a constitutional right.”
“Asking the president of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the White House said in a statement.