The Trump administration moved rapidly to stir up the share of journalists who cover the White House by adding Newsmax, a right-leaning channel, to the movement on Wednesday and booting up a reporter from HuffPost, a left-leaning shop, and Reuters wire service.
The White House did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Generally, three cable companies cover the leader as part of a rotating group of 18 radio, television, print, and cable services reporters.
Just one line company is covering President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Bloomberg, after press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday that the White House did resign from its task duties on Tuesday.
In a shift that goes against years of history, the White House will choose the other two games as it sees fit.
” It is essential in a republic for the people to have access to information about their state from an independent, free click”, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Reuters said in a joint statement on Wednesday. We think that any government action that restricts the number of wires services with access to the President threatens that process. It also harms the spread of credible information to people, communities, firms and global financial markets that greatly rely on our reporting”.
On Wednesday, the presidency added Newsmax to its list of secondary broadcast correspondents.
The Blaze, another right-leaning channel, is now the New Media swimming, which allows newer or untraditional shops and bloggers to support Trump.
” We want more outlets and new outlets to have a chance to take part in the press pool to cover this administration’s unprecedented achievements up close, front and center”, Leavitt said at Tuesday’s press briefing.
Eugene Daniels, president of the WHCA, slammed the move in a statement, noting that the White House had not told the organization about the changes.
The United States ‘ free press is a subject of” this move tears at.” According to Daniels, it recommends that the government select journalists to cover the president. ” In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps”.
Leavitt and other members of the administration were barred from reporting on Oval Office events and accompanying him on Air Force One, according to The Associated Press, one of the original three wire services that regularly covered the president.
The Trump administration’s refusal to comply with the president’s executive order renaming the” Gulf of Mexico” to the” Gulf of America” was a factor in Associated Press reporters ‘ exclusion.
Following a federal judge’s refusal to reinstate the Associated Press reporters immediately, the organization experienced legal disarray. The next hearing is scheduled for March 20 and the lawsuit will continue.
Some legacy media reporters, including NPR, are still part of the pool team covering Trump on Wednesday.
However, several reporters have denounced the administration’s unprecedented move to take control of pool assignments.
This flagrant First Amendment violation is condemned by” HuffPost.” Americans deserve fair and honest reporting on their president”, HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Whitney Snyder said about the ouster. ” The White House must stop this cowardly behavior and restore HuffPost‘s place in the press pool immediately”.
” The press corps ( from across a broad spectrum of TV, radio, print, stills, wires, and new media ) that cover the White House full time”, said Jacqui Heinrich, a White House correspondent for Fox News and a WHCA board member. ” This is a short-sighted decision, and it will feel a lot different when a future Democratic administration kicks out conservative-leaning outlets and other critical voices”.
This action gives power to the White House rather than the people, the statement reads. The full-time White House press corps elects the WHCA democratically, she wrote in a separate post.
After Peter Baker, a New York Times reporter, criticized the Trump administration, Leavitt hit back on X.
She wrote,” Your hysterical reaction to our long overdue and desperately needed change to an outdated organization is precisely why we made it.” ” Gone are the days where left-wing stenographers posing as journalists, such as yourself, dictate who gets to ask what”.
” Guess he won’t be a pooler anytime soon”, Katie Miller, an aide in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, replied to Leavitt.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration removed the New York Times, NPR, NBC News, and Politico from their office spaces covering the Pentagon to make way for the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network, and HuffPost.
A week later, CNN, the Washington Post, the Hill, and War Zone were kicked out of their office spaces covering the Pentagon to make space for Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller, and the Free Press. The , Washington Examiner , already had a designated workspace and did not seek a second desk prior to the announcement.
These outlets, except for the HuffPost, all have conservative editorial stances.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES PRESS ROTATIONS FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENTS
The actions are a new development as the Trump administration tries to exert more influence over the media and aims to elude executive action.
It has been said from the beginning of this podium that the White House press operation is in line with American media practices in 2025, not 1925, according to Leavitt. A select group of journalists with offices in Washington, D.C., should no longer be able to control the White House’s press access. All journalists, outlets, and voices deserve a seat at this highly coveted table”.
