Karoline Leavitt reaffirmed the administration’s stance that it has the authority to select which outlets are allowed to cover the president in limited-space events.
The White House removed reporters from HuffPost, Reuters, and a foreign press representative from the press pool covering President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The decision comes as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reaffirmed the administration’s stance that it has the authority to select which outlets are allowed to cover the president in limited-space events. This change was made on Tuesday of this week when the White House stripped the White House Correspondents Association from making those decisions and took the roll on themselves.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, the three reporters were informed by White House press aides before the meeting that they would not be permitted to join the pool. The reporters were kicked out alongside the Associated Press reporter and photographer who were removed indefinitely after the AP refused to use the term “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico” in its reporting. This week, a judge temporarily upheld the White House's stance on that pending a further hearing.
HuffPost White House reporter SV Date, who had been scheduled to serve as the outlet’s pool representative, was replaced by an Axios reporter. Speaking to reporters in the briefing room, Date expressed frustration over the decision. As part of their argument to ban the AP, the White House said in a brief that the AP still had access to pool reporting.
“I will say this, I've been pooling now for 10 years, since the Obama administration,” Date said. “The number of times that the Obama White House, Trump White House 1, Biden White House and Trump White House 2 in the times that I've pooled so far have asked for a mistake to be corrected in one of my pool reports? Zero. None. Never.”
“The number of times that any of those White Houses have asked for a correction in one of my stories, that's also zero,” he continued. “So, it's not about accuracy, it's not about competence, and I'll let them explain what it's about.” Date has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, having previously authored a book about Trump titled “The Useful Idiot."
The White House Correspondents' Association has historically determined a rotation for the daily press pool. However, the Trump administration has asserted control over which outlets are granted access. “It’s beyond time the White House press pool reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025,” Leavitt said Tuesday.
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