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In a sharp departure from long-standing traditions, the White House announced Tuesday that it will now determine which news organizations receive close access to President Donald Trump. The decision upends a system that, for over a century, allowed a press pool of independently chosen journalists to follow the president and report on his activities on behalf of the American people.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the decision as an effort to modernize presidential coverage. “The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office,” she said during a briefing.
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Leavitt argued that traditional media organizations have monopolized coverage for too long, promising that the new policy would introduce a wider range of outlets, including some streaming services. “A select group of D.C.-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House,” she added.
However, press freedom advocates and media experts have condemned the move, warning that it allows the president to dictate coverage by choosing which reporters are granted access.
Press Freedom Groups Sound the Alarm
Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, expressed deep concern over the policy shift.
“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.”
Jon Marshall, a media history professor at Northwestern University, called the decision “a dangerous move for democracy.”
“It means the president can pick and choose who covers the executive branch, ignoring the fact that it is the American people who, through their taxes, pay for the running of the White House, the president’s travels, and the press secretary’s salary,” Marshall said.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also issued a warning about the policy’s impact on government transparency.
“The White House press pool exists to serve the public, not the presidency,” said Bruce D. Brown, the organization’s president. “This is a drastic change in how the public obtains information about its government.”
Policy Change Coincides with AP Lawsuit Against the White House
The new White House policy comes amid an ongoing legal battle between the administration and The Associated Press. The AP recently sued the administration for barring its journalists from multiple presidential events.
The dispute began when the AP refused to comply with Trump’s directive to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The White House retaliated by restricting AP’s access to key events, leading the news outlet to file a lawsuit citing First Amendment violations.
On Monday, a federal judge declined to immediately reinstate the AP’s access, ruling that the outlet had not demonstrated “irreparable harm.” However, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden also signaled that legal precedent was “uniformly unhelpful to the White House” and encouraged the administration to reconsider its decision. A full hearing on the matter is scheduled for late March.
Trump, however, inaccurately claimed victory in the case. “As you know, we won that lawsuit,” he told reporters.
As the legal battle over press access continues, critics warn that the White House’s new credentialing system represents a broader attempt to control media narratives.
