The White House will oversee news outlets that will become part of the White House press, not the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), a White House spokesperson said Tuesday.
The WHCA has customary authority to choose a rotation of news outlets that can access oval offices and other regions with limited access, but the Trump administration has overturned that policy.
“Legacy outlets that have been involved in the press pool for decades are still permitted to participate. “But we also offer privileges to unimaginable dealers who are never allowed to share this incredible responsibility.”
More than 440 reporters lose press passes after the White House changes requirements
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt announced the changes to the White House Pool pool on February 25, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP)
But President Donald Trump's White House is not the only one to develop controversial policies on press access.
In 2023, more than 440 reporters were disqualified from the press after President Joe Biden's White House changed rules regarding eligibility for permanent passes.
Qualified White House presses have dropped from 1,417 members to 975 members after the White House announced new standards requiring annual renewals for hard passes, Politicico reported in 2023.
The Biden White House policy was launched in May 2023, requiring reporters to prove employment with an organization where major businesses are news spreading, and show that they have “access to the White House campus at least once in the past six months or have employment proof to cover the White House within the past three months.”
Former President Joe Biden and former White House Press Secretary Carine Jean Pierre (Getty Images)
The Biden White House defended its decision to block daily access to these reporters, claiming that many journalists whose passes have expired in the past three months had not accessed the White House.
“When we started this process in early May, about 40% of hardpass owners had no access to the White House complex in the last 90 days,” the White House said in a 2023 statement to Politico. “I think this shows that we led a thoughtful and thorough process of preserving robust media access to campus for everyone who needs it, whether it's a hard pass or a day pass.”
Trump's administrators are the White House Correspondents Association to end the “monopoly” of “DC Journalists”
The Biden White House also made changes to the White House press squad, with hundreds of reporters losing passes. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Leavitt announced in January that the Trump White House would work to “recover the media passes of 440 journalists that were accidentally revoked by the previous administration.”
On Tuesday, Leavitt said the White House decision was intended to “empower people” to ensure that “all journalists, outlets and voices deserve a seat at this highly coveted table.”
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In response, WHCA President Eugene Daniels said the WHCA had not received any notice prior to the White House decision, and expressed the move “tears at the independence of the US freedom press.”
“It suggests that the government will choose journalists to cover the president,” Daniels said. “In a free country, leaders should not be able to choose their press corps.”
Gabriel Hays of Fox News contributed to this report.
