The White House Correspondents’ Association was established 111 years ago this month. In that time, this unelected body has decided which news organizations and reporters have access to the coveted press pool, which provides more access to the sitting president in smaller areas such as the Oval Office.

That all changed when President Donald Trump’s White House announced it would decide who would be rotated in and out of the press pool to expand the number of outlets and people who can ask the president questions in exclusive spaces. This includes, for instance, when he is signing executive orders in the Oval Office, holding Cabinet meetings in the White House, or traveling aboard Air Force One.

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“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing last week. 

“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.”

WHCA President Eugene Daniels, who just left Politico to host a weekend show on the totally unbiased MSNBC, said the White House decision “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.

This is an interesting statement from Daniels, especially when considering that the WHCA, which itself is self-elected, has enjoyed a consortium in ensuring that, on an annual basis, only so-called “top” legacy news organizations consistently received the special privileges that go with being in the press pool. All the while, less traditional or smaller organizations were always on the outside looking in. 

It’s also interesting that Daniels is the president of the WHCA despite making overtly partisan statements about President Donald Trump, such as this one: 

“[Trump] held his most angry self for black women,” Daniels claimed to a nodding Jen Psaki on MSNBC about his perception of Trump’s demeanor toward former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. “If they asked [Trump] a question, he would have the worst things to say about them.”

Again, this is the same (now-former) reporter who claims to be nonpartisan yet just left Politico to host an opinion show on MSNBC, the most partisan “news” network in the history of broadcasting. You can’t make this stuff up. 

Back to reality, this is how Leavitt responded to Daniels’s allegation of an “independent press” being under assault: 

“Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not,” Leavitt said. “But we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.”

The reaction from those formerly in the press pool has been nothing short of hysterical. 

“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,” New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker wrote.

“Give me a break, Peter,” Leavitt shot back. “Moments after you tweeted this, the president invited journalists into the Oval and took questions for nearly an hour.”

“Your hysterical reaction to our long overdue and much-needed change to an outdated organization is precisely why we made it,” she added. “Gone are the days where left-wing stenographers posing as journalists, such as yourself, dictate who gets to ask what.”

Associated Press Executive Editor Julie Pace also attempted to argue that freedom of speech was in peril thanks to Trump. 

“This is about freedom of speech. … This is about whether the government can control the language that we use, that ordinary people can use.”

Wait. How exactly is the government controlling language here? 

Can AP continue to report on the Trump White House in any manner it chooses? Yes, it can. That includes the organization’s odd insistence on not calling the newly named Gulf of America by its new name, as other news organizations have.

Another question: Will the Associated Press continue to have senior status, as it has for decades when it comes to the press pool? No. 

And that’s the way it should be. One would think the rest of the media would be cheering this decision on. After all, how could it be bad to have more news organizations ask questions of the president in special situations rather than having only a handful of organizations monopolize the pool and, therefore, always have more access to the president than their competitors? 

And Trump has hardly been inaccessible. He has taken over 1,000 questions since taking office 45 days ago. Compare that to former President Joe Biden, who had only taken 161 questions at this point of his presidency. 

The numbers are the numbers: Trump has easily been the most accessible president of our lifetimes, even more so this time than his first term. Winning every swing state and the popular vote has only emboldened him to take more questions because he feels he is on the right side of every major issue. 

On Feb. 21, the Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials, including Leavitt, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, all because it felt entitled to preferential access to the president. 

“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 complaint reads, “Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.”

However, a federal judge recently refused to order the White House to restore AP’s special access by reinstating it into the press pool, noting that the wire service had not suffered irreparable harm. 

In a statement, government attorney Brian Hudak argued press access is “a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right.”

“That’s not just special access. That’s extra-special access. The president can choose who to speak with,” he added. 

Another hearing is set for March 20. 

Next month, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will go on as scheduled at the Washington Hilton. It’s unclear whether Trump will attend (during his first term, he declined to attend the three dinners that were held pre-COVID). After seeing the “talent” the WHCA chose to host the event, the president would be wise to avoid what will surely be an ambush this time around. 

“No one wants [Trump to attend],” comedian Amber Ruffin told CNN’s Jake Tapper after he asked if she wanted Trump to be there. “I don’t know that anyone’s looking forward to being in the same room as him.” 

In a related story, Ruffin is a writer for the liberal NBC program Late Night with Seth Meyers. Remember, it was Meyers who made this joke in 2011, four years before Trump had even jumped into politics:

“Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising because I just assumed he was running as a joke,” Meyers said at the time.

Well, that one aged about as well as milk left in a sauna. 

If the WHCA wants to continue to insist it is nonpartisan, perhaps it should show it by hiring a comedian who isn’t a full-on liberal who works for a show that is indistinguishable from MSNBC or The View. 

Donald Trump has been taking questions from reporters almost daily, a marked contrast from the four years of Biden, who did a grand total of zero solo press conferences in his final year in office. And he wasn’t the only one who avoided the press. His vice president, the eventual Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, didn’t hold a single solo press conference in her four years in office. 

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It’s a refreshing, transparent change, for sure. 

But you would never know it when listening to many in the legacy press, who continue to scream about supposedly losing a First Amendment right that, in reality, has only been enhanced under this administration.