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The White House announced Tuesday that it would decide which journalists get access to US President Donald Trump’s events, stripping the power from an independent association of media outlets that has done so for around a century.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) should no longer have a “monopoly” over choosing the members of the pool, the small group of reporters who cover Trump in places like the Oval Office and Air Force One.
The WHCA swiftly condemned the move, saying it “tears at the independence of a free press.”
It comes amid an escalating battle between the White House and the Associated Press news agency, which Trump has barred from presidential events in a row over his renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
Leavitt revealed the move at a daily briefing, saying that the WHCA had for “long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces.”
“Not anymore. I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people,” she added. “Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team.”
Leavitt appeared flanked by two large video screens saying “Victory” and “Gulf of America.”
Shortly afterwards, senior White House advisor Jason Miller said on X: “R.I.P. @WHCA 1914-2025” along with a picture of mourners bearing a coffin.
– ‘Power to the White House’ –
AFP is a member of the WHCA and is part of the White House pool.
The shape of the changes the White House intends were not immediately clear. The press pool that travels on the presidential plane consists of 13 journalists from a variety of wire services, print media, television and radio outlets.
In the Oval Office and during other events in the White House it is slightly larger but still small given space limits in the cramped West Wing.
Leavitt said that “legacy outlets” would still be allowed to join the press pool, but that access would also be opened to “deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.”
WHCA President Eugene Daniels criticized the move, saying the White House had not given any advance notification.
“This 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,” Daniels said in a statement.
“In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, a WHCA board member, also criticized the decision.
“This move does not give the power back to the people — it gives power to the White House,” Heinrich said on X.
“The WHCA is democratically elected by the full-time White House press corps.”
– ‘New media’ –
The youngest press secretary in history, 27-year-old Leavitt said in her opening briefing in January that she would be adding a “new media” seat in the White House briefing room and accused the traditional media of “lies.”
But tensions between the White House and the media didn’t really erupt until it began blocking Associated Press journalists from presidential events two weeks ago.
The White House said it had done so over the wire service’s decision to keep using “Gulf of Mexico,” despite a Trump executive order renaming the body of water as the “Gulf of America.”
A US judge on Monday declined to immediately order the White House to restore full access to the agency, but set a date next month for a more extensive hearing about the dispute.
Trump has described the AP as a “radical left” organization and said it will remain banned until it changes its style for the Gulf of Mexico.
