Trump Admin Seizes Control Of White House Press Pool

Politico reports:

The White House announced on Tuesday that the administration — not an independent group of journalists — will determine which outlets have access to the president as part of a pool allowed into the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One and into other meetings. The decision comes a day after the administration won a temporary ruling allowing it to bar the Associated Press from pooled events, in retaliation for the news wire’s decision to resist Trump’s demand that it rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the newest changes in the briefing room on Tuesday, asserting that the White House Correspondents’ Association “should no longer have a monopoly” on organizing press pools and that the White House would determine the makeup of the pool on a day-to-day basis. WHCA, a group of journalists on the beat elected by their peers, have long overseen the rotations of print, radio and television correspondents that make up the pool.

Read the full article.  Watch the video if you can bear it.

.@PressSec: A federal judge denied the Associated Press’ emergency motion for a temporary restraining order… The judge’s decision reinforces the truth: Asking the President of the United States questions in limited spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One is a… pic.twitter.com/cIYTn8t4qC

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 25, 2025