Leavitt Overhauls White House Press Pool: “Not Anymore” Controlled by Correspondents’ Association

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced sweeping changes to the White House press pool on February 26, 2025, stripping the White House Correspondents’ Association of its decades-long control over which journalists received privileged access to the president. “For decades, a group of D.C.-based journalists — the WHCA — has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States in these most intimate spaces,” Leavitt said. “Not anymore.” The reforms would add streaming services, local radio hosts, and new media outlets to the pool rotation while preserving legacy media’s existing positions. The announcement came on the heels of a federal court ruling by Judge McFadden dismissing the AP’s lawsuit against the White House.

”Not Anymore”

Leavitt opened with two words that signaled the end of an era in White House media relations.

“As you all know, for decades, a group of D.C.-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States in these most intimate spaces,” Leavitt said. “Not anymore.”

The declaration was delivered from the very podium that the WHCA had traditionally controlled. The Correspondents’ Association had for decades managed the press pool — the small, rotating group of journalists who accompanied the president on Air Force One, covered Oval Office events, and had the most intimate access to presidential activities. The pool’s composition had been determined by the WHCA, with the White House traditionally deferring to the association’s selections.

That arrangement was now over. “I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows, and who listen to your radio stations,” Leavitt said.

She announced the new structure: “Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team.”

Legacy Media Preserved, New Voices Added

Leavitt anticipated the objection that the changes were designed to punish mainstream outlets and reassured the room that existing access would continue.

“Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not,” Leavitt said. “But we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.”

She drew a direct parallel to an earlier reform: “Just like we added a new media seat in this briefing room, legacy media outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool, but new voices are going to be welcomed in as well.”

The “new media seat” reference was to the administration’s decision early in the term to add a dedicated seat in the briefing room for non-traditional media outlets, including digital platforms and independent journalists. The press pool reform extended that principle to the most exclusive level of presidential access.

The Specific Changes

Leavitt outlined the reforms with unusual specificity, addressing each category of media representation.

Television: “We will continue the rotation amongst the five major television networks to ensure the President’s remarks are heard far and wide around this world.” The five networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News — would retain their television pool positions.

Streaming: “We will add additional streaming services, which reach different audiences than traditional cable and broadcast,” Leavitt said. “This is the ever-changing landscape of the media in the United States today.” The addition of streaming platforms acknowledged that millions of Americans consumed news through services like Rumble, YouTube-based channels, and other digital platforms that had no representation in the traditional pool.

Print: “We will continue to rotate a print pooler who has the great responsibility of quickly transcribing the President’s remarks and disseminating them to the rest of the world,” Leavitt said. “And we will add outlets to the print pool rotation who have long been denied the privilege to partake in this experience but are committed to covering this White House beat.”

Radio: “We will continue to rotate a radio pooler and add other radio hosts who have been denied access, especially local radio hosts, who serve as the heartbeat of our country,” Leavitt said.

The emphasis on local radio was politically savvy. Local radio hosts reached audiences that national media did not, and their inclusion in the press pool would produce coverage that was both more geographically diverse and more sympathetic to the administration’s agenda. Local radio stations in swing states and rural areas would now have journalists in the room when the president made news — a significant advantage for the administration’s communication strategy.

Issue-specific reporters: “We will add additional outlets and reporters who are well-suited to cover the news of the day and ask substantive questions of the President of the United States, depending on the news he is making on that given day,” Leavitt said.

This final category gave the White House maximum flexibility. If the president was announcing an energy policy, energy-focused outlets could be included. If the topic was agriculture, farm-state media could join the pool. The issue-specific rotation ensured that the journalists in the room would have expertise relevant to the day’s news — and would be more likely to ask informed questions rather than recycling the same adversarial framings that characterized much of the mainstream coverage.

The McFadden Ruling

A reporter referenced a recent federal court ruling that provided legal context for the changes. Judge McFadden had dismissed a lawsuit the Associated Press had brought against the White House, and in his ruling had effectively questioned the WHCA’s legal standing.

The reporter noted that Judge McFadden had asked “why not just do away with the entire White House Correspondents’ Association along with it, because essentially they have no authority — they just usurped it.”

Leavitt used the question to reinforce the legitimacy of the reforms. “I did address that actually in my opening remarks by announcing that the White House press team in this administration will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office,” she said.

She framed the change as a matter of fairness: “There are — as you know, look at this room — hundreds of journalists who show up to this building every single day and are not granted that luxury of flying on Air Force One and asking the President of the United States questions. And so we want to ensure, again, everyone has a seat at that highly coveted table.”

The judge’s ruling provided the legal foundation the White House needed. If the WHCA had no legal authority over pool composition — if its role was, in the judge’s words, “usurped” rather than legally established — then the White House was well within its rights to reassign that function to its own press team.

What the Reforms Meant

The press pool overhaul was the most significant structural change to White House media relations in modern history. For decades, the WHCA had functioned as a self-governing body that determined which journalists received the most valuable access in Washington. By transferring that authority to the White House press team, the Trump administration was asserting that the president — not an association of journalists — would decide who covered his activities at the closest range.

Critics would argue that the change gave the White House dangerous control over its own coverage. Supporters countered that the WHCA had exercised that same control for decades, selecting journalists from a narrow set of legacy outlets that shared similar perspectives and excluding the growing universe of independent and digital media that millions of Americans relied on for news.

Leavitt’s assurance that legacy outlets would retain their positions blunted the most potent criticism. The reform was not exclusionary; it was additive. The Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, and the broadcast networks would continue to cover the president. They would simply be joined by outlets that represented the broader media landscape of 2025 rather than the media landscape of 1975.

Key Takeaways

• Leavitt announced the White House press team would determine pool composition, ending the WHCA’s decades-long control: “Not anymore.”
• Legacy media outlets retain their positions, but streaming services, local radio hosts, and new media will be added to the pool rotation.
• She cited the changing media landscape, noting that streaming platforms “reach different audiences than traditional cable and broadcast.”
• A federal court ruling by Judge McFadden, which dismissed the AP’s lawsuit and questioned WHCA’s legal authority, provided the legal foundation for the reforms.
• Leavitt framed the changes as expanding access: “Hundreds of journalists show up to this building every day and are not granted that luxury. We want to ensure everyone has a seat at that highly coveted table.”