President Floats Moving Press Corps Out of White House
The administration is considering relocating the briefing room while disputes over press access continue.
By Mei Lin ·
The President may soon be sending the press corps out of the West Wing.
In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump suggested he is considering moving the journalists who cover the White House to a different location. The statement dismissed reports that he plans to remove the briefing room in order to restore a swimming pool beneath it. The President labeled those accounts as fake news, writing that he had never even considered such a plan. However, he did leave open the possibility of relocating reporters to a less obnoxious location.
Previous discussions about relocating the press have already taken place. Earlier this week, reports indicated that the President pitched his former press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on moving journalists out of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. That proposal did not advance before Leavitt left the position on August 27. Leavitt later told an interviewer that the President was flirting with the idea of restoring the pool to all of its glory, though she was unsure if it would happen.
The pool sits beneath the floor of the briefing room. It was constructed in 1933 for President Franklin D Roosevelt, who used swimming to ease soreness related to polio. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon covered the pool with a floor to create a briefing room for the growing press corps. The pool is still located there today.
These remarks come during a tense period between the administration and the reporters covering it. Last month, journalists from CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO were barred from the White House. A federal judge ruled that the order was likely unconstitutional and required the journalists to be restored to access. The administration is currently fighting that ruling.
Any change to the briefing room would add to a list of projects that have altered the White House property since the President returned to power last year. Work has included demolishing the East Wing for a ballroom, laying pavers over the center of the Rose Garden lawn, and building a helipad on the South Lawn. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: Al Jazeera
