Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- February 25, 2025
- Location
- Washington, District of Columbia
- Government agency or public official involved
- Type of denial
- Change in policy or practice
Denial of Access
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions during a news briefing in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2025. Leavitt announced that the administration — not the White House Correspondents’ Association — will organize press pool rotations.
White House cuts permanent wire position from press pool
The White House announced on April 15, 2025, that it had eliminated the permanent wire service position in the White House press pool, continuing its aggressive efforts to shape news coverage since seizing control of the pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association.
One wire service spot — either for AP, Bloomberg News or Reuters — was reserved in the past for the 13-member group of reporters and photojournalists who travel with and cover the president’s daily activities, and whose makeup has traditionally been determined by the WHCA.
But in February, the White House took over assigning the pool and in April told reporters that wire services would no longer be guaranteed a spot, The Washington Post reported. The space was reserved instead for a second print reporter, for which wire-based outlets are technically eligible.
The Associated Press condemned the policy change as an attempt to circumvent a court order mandating its access to White House events. The wire service sued Trump administration officials in federal court in February after being denied access to various events because of its editorial policies. It won a preliminary injunction April 8, ordering officials to reverse the access ban. The order went into effect April 14, one day before the White House announcement.
The policy change comes after the White House failed to distribute at least two pool reports through official channels in early April, according to journalist Oliver Darcy, including a report on the administration’s refusal to admit two AP journalists to report on a dinner attended by Trump.
AP spokesperson Lauren Easton, in a statement to the Post, said, “We are deeply disappointed that the administration has chosen to restrict the access of all wire services, whose fast and accurate White House coverage informs billions of people every single day, rather than reinstate The Associated Press to the wire pool.”
WHCA President Eugene Daniels told the Post that the policy changes are simply a means to “retaliate against news organizations for coverage the White House doesn’t like.”
White House censors two reports from pool reporters
The Trump White House failed to distribute at least two pool reports through official channels on April 7 and April 8, 2025, Oliver Darcy reported in his newsletter, Status.
According to Darcy, the White House withheld an April 7 dispatch from RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann that noted the cancellation of a press conference with President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Also held back was a filing the following day from Dallas Morning News reporter Joseph Morton, which noted that two Associated Press journalists were “turned away from joining the pool” as it followed Trump to a dinner.
Earlier on April 8, a federal court mandated that the administration reverse the ban on press pool access for the AP, initiated in February over the wire service’s editorial policy on referencing the Gulf of Mexico. The order is on hold pending an appeal by the administration.
Mediaite reported that, while pool reports are also distributed through a White House Correspondents’ Association listserv, many journalists depend entirely on the official White House channels.
“This is a perfect example of why the White House Correspondents’ Association for years has provided independent delivery of pool reports,” WHCA President Eugene Daniels told Darcy. “It’s critical that journalists who cover the presidency—and the Americans who rely on their coverage to stay informed—get unfiltered information free from government control.”
The move also came just over a week after the White House indicated that it was also considering taking over the briefing room seat assignments, another function long handled by the WHCA.
In a statement at the time, the WHCA Board wrote, “The White House should abandon this wrong-headed effort and show the American people they’re not afraid to explain their policies and field questions from an independent media free from government control.”
In a break with more than a century of practice, the White House Correspondents’ Association will no longer control the press pool covering the president, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced during a news briefing on Feb. 25, 2025.
The pool — a 13-member group of reporters and photojournalists who travel with and cover the president’s daily activities — has traditionally been overseen by the WHCA to ensure that access isn’t limited to those covering the sitting administration favorably.
Leavitt’s announcement came amid a legal fight between The Associated Press and the White House over the news agency’s exclusion since Feb. 11 from events on Air Force One, in the Oval Office and other pool-only areas in retaliation for its editorial policy on referring to the Gulf of Mexico.
Reporters and photojournalists for the AP have historically been included in the White House pool rotation, and the WHCA filed a brief in support of the AP’s case Feb. 23.
Leavitt announced during the Feb. 25 briefing that her team will take over assigning the pool, stating that “For decades a group of DC-based journalists — the White House Correspondents Association — has dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore.
“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 continued, noting that asking the president questions is a privilege and “awesome responsibility.”
She emphasized that the rotations of broadcast, print and radio journalists would continue, but would include streaming services, local radio hosts and print outlets that are “committed” to covering the White House.
The WHCA warned against the press freedom implications of the move and pushed back against Leavitt’s justification for the change in a statement on the social platform X.
“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,” WHCA President Eugene Daniels said. “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
The organization also noted that it has worked to keep pace with the evolving media environment while ensuring “consistent professional standards and fairness in access.”
The decision was criticized by multiple White House correspondents. Peter Baker, chief White House reporter for The New York Times, wrote, “Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.”
Late that evening, reporters from HuffPost and Reuters were removed from the Feb. 26 press pool list, HuffPost reported. A reporter from Axios replaced the HuffPost reporter as the print pool representative, and the spots typically reserved for Reuters and the AP were allotted to Newsmax and Blaze Media, two conservative news outlets.
Reuters, the AP and Bloomberg News issued a joint statement against the move as the “three permanent wires in the White House pool.”
“Much of the White House coverage people see in their local news outlets, wherever they are in the world, comes from the wires,” the outlets’ editors said. “It is essential in a democracy for the public to have access to news about their government from an independent, free press. We believe that any steps by the government to limit the number of wire services with access to the President threatens that principle.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include details about the White House changing the roster for the pool of journalists set to follow the president on Feb. 26, 2025, as well as a statement from the three wire services historically in the pool.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
