Scoop: Trump expected to shake up White House briefing room
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President Trump speaks to the press in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in 2020. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
A new Trump administration is expected to challenge traditions in the famous James Brady Press Briefing Room, sources told Axios.
Why it matters: Confidants of President-elect Trump are considering changes that would give newer, MAGA-aligned voices access to daily press briefings.
The big picture: Practices that have governed the White House's interaction with the press have long favored mainstream outlets such as major broadcast and cable news networks, national newspapers and wire services.
- Trump's first administration tried to ban outlets it saw as unfavorable from off-camera press briefings. That included the New York Times, Politico, CNN and BBC.
- More recently, his campaign blocked multiple reporters from its election watch event in Mar-a-Lago last week, including those from Politico, Axios and Puck News.
Zoom in: At least two media executives who run MAGA-aligned news outlets — one in streaming and one in text — told Axios they plan to apply for credentials that would give them access to White House press briefings.
- The briefing room currently seats 49 reporters across an array of outlets. Any efforts to expand access to daily press briefings to pro-Trump outlets, such as Steve Bannon's War Room, would need to come at the expense of existing outlets.
- Seat assignments tend to flux marginally with each new administration. But the most visible seats in the front have historically been reserved for bigger TV networks that air clips from the briefing room regularly.
Yes, but: The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) has control over seating, but the White House determines press credentials.
- Therefore, it's possible for an outlet to be credentialed, but not have a briefing room seat.
- The WHCA famously removed the conservative One America News Network (OANN) in 2020 from the daily White House briefing rotation after the outlet failed to comply with WHCA COVID rules.
State of play: Fierce competition for the White House press secretary role is underway, with a slew of names in the mix, including Trump Campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump adviser and attorney Alina Habba and former Trump Administration official Monica Crowley.
- Former ESPN host-turned-influencer Sage Steele, CNN contributor and Bush White House official Scott Jennings, and model-turned-RNC spokesperson Elizabeth Pipko are also vying for the role, sources told Axios.
- Longtime Trump campaign communications staffers Steven Cheung and Danielle Alvarez are in the running for the role of White House communications director.
What they're saying: "President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon. Those decisions will be announced when they are made," Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said when asked about the plan for new press staffers.
Zoom out: Trump has made denigrating legacy media a staple of his campaign this cycle, frequently singling out "the fake news" or specific outlets at his rallies.
- A press briefing shakeup would reflect his gravitation toward friendly podcasters, YouTubers and social media influencers.
