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The White House has said it will choose journalists allowed to have the nearest approach to Donald Trump, removing that election from a body of reporters who for decades has decided who participates in the “pool” that covers the presidents.
The move was announced by Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, during a conference on Tuesday in which she said her team will “determine who takes to enjoy the highly privileged and limited access to such spaces as Air Force One and Oval Office “.
“We will give the power to the people who read your letters, who watch your television shows and listen to your radio stations,” Leavitt said. She added that the move was created to bring “new voices” to cover Trump along with “Media Legacy” organizations.
Trump later told reporters, “we’ll call them shots.”
Leavitt’s push overthrows the current system, in which the Association of White House correspondents, a body of reporters that has existed since 1914, creates a rotation of the exits to be part of the pool.
The group has the closest approach to US presidents in Washington and on local and abroad trips.
“This tears in the independence of a free press in the United States,” the White House correspondent association said on Tuesday, whose members include Financial Times.
“This suggests that the government will choose journalists covering the president. In a free country, leaders should not be able to choose their own press troops.”
The step will increase concerns that Trump is moving quickly to undermine some of the fundamental norms and institutions of American democracy.
The White House has already taken steps to take more control of independent government agencies, to clear the civil service of any opposing employee and fire officials appointed by former President Joe Biden.
Trump has a history to criticize traditional media organizations throughout his political career, labeling them as “fake news” and “enemy of people”.
In the first months of Trump’s second term, the White House has moved to exclude the Associated Press from access to the “pool” due to its refusal to rename Mexico as “Gulf of America”.
Trump had instructed the US government to approve the new name shortly after he entered the White House.
The AP has sued the White House to restore its access to the pool based on the constitutional right of free speech. However, on Monday a federal judge ruled in Trump’s favor now, saying the AP is not facing “irreparable harm” due to the lack of his participation in the pool.
Despite the nature of the litigation, Leavitt cheers the judge’s ruling, saying it reinforced the idea that asking the president’s questions in limited spaces was “a privilege that, unfortunately, was given only a few” and was not “right legal. ”
