Trump says he ‘may move’ White House press corps

U.S. President Donald Trump said Oct. 24 that he never thought of replacing the White House press briefing room with a swimming pool, but that he “may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location,” Reuters reported.

The comment, in a social media post, leaves open a change that would end more than a century of reporters working inside the White House building. It comes a month after the administration briefly barred journalists from three news outlets from the grounds.

Trump was responding to a New York Times report published Oct. 20. The newspaper reported that Trump urged then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt in August to move news conferences out of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Reuters said. The idea was never carried out. The Times also reported that Trump told aides he would prefer to restore an indoor therapy pool installed at the site under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Nixon administration replaced that pool with the briefing room.

Trump rejected the pool report. Reuters quoted him as writing that he had never “even thought to do such a stupid thing.” He did not rule out relocating the press corps.

CBS News, in a report by Robert Costa dated Oct. 21, cited two people close to Trump who said he has discussed moving the press corps out of the White House building. One of the sources told CBS that outside allies, including former strategist Steve Bannon, have pushed the idea in recent weeks. Neither source said a final decision had been made, CBS reported.

White House communications director Steven Cheung told CBS that “America is rightly distrustful of the fake news media.” He said “all options remain on the table, and we will make an announcement when appropriate.”

CBS also noted that Trump posted a before-and-after image on Truth Social in late September suggesting the briefing room could be turned back into a pool. Canada News Media has not independently confirmed the Times report, which Reuters and CBS both relayed.

The idea is not new. In 2017, officials including then-incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus floated moving briefings to the nearby Eisenhower Executive Office Building. CBS reported that Trump later told Fox News: “The press went crazy, so I said, ‘Let’s not move it.'”

The latest remarks follow a series of disputes over access. Last month, Trump tried to ban reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. A federal judge found the ban likely violated the First Amendment and due process, and the outlets’ access was restored, as Canada News Media reported. Reuters said the administration is still contesting the case. Free speech advocates have said the ban violated press-freedom protections.

CBS also reported that the White House has repeatedly blocked CNN from the television press pool and previously barred the Associated Press from some spaces over its refusal to use “Gulf of America.” The Pentagon has also tightened press access, CBS said. The White House press office has also seen turnover, with Katie Zacharia leaving the press secretary job less than a week after she was named to it.

No date has been set for any move, and the White House has not announced one. Neither report addressed whether foreign news organizations would be affected.

Via Reuters (Jason Lange, Oct. 24) and CBS News (Robert Costa, Oct. 21), which cited the New York Times.

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