The White House denied access to several journalists during President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting, enforcing a new policy on media coverage.
Reporters from Reuters, HuffPost, and Der Tagesspiegel, along with an Associated Press photographer, were barred from attending. However, TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, as well as journalists from Axios, The Blaze, Bloomberg News, and NPR, were allowed access.
The Trump administration announced that the White House would now determine which media outlets could cover events in smaller spaces like the Oval Office, altering the traditional press pool system managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA).
Reuters, AP, and Bloomberg—longstanding members of the press pool—issued a joint statement emphasizing the importance of independent journalism in a democracy. The WHCA also protested the policy change, while HuffPost labeled it a violation of the First Amendment.
This move follows the administration’s recent decision to exclude the Associated Press from the press pool after it refused to adopt Trump’s preferred naming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” Despite these changes, major TV networks will retain their rotating pool seats, while the White House plans to incorporate new media outlets and streaming services.
