The White House is not ruling out moving reporters out of the press briefing room, a space that began as a swimming pool, as President Donald Trump weighs a remake of the West Wing. Communications Director Steven Cheung said “all options remain on the table” when asked about a New York Times report that Trump has talked about replacing the room with an indoor pool, according to TheWrap.
The Times reported that Trump brought up moving the press corps during one of his last meetings with then-Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and that it was not the first time he had raised it.
What is being discussed
CBS News reported, citing two people close to the president, that Trump has discussed moving the press corps to another building. One option reported by TheWrap would send reporters to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street. Trump also posted a before-and-after image on Truth Social suggesting the briefing room could return to its earlier life as a pool.
The room’s history makes the joke land. The pool dated to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, and it was converted into the press room in 1970 under President Richard Nixon. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Trump had repeatedly weighed moving the entire press corps out of the White House, though a senior official told the paper at the time that Trump had no plans to do it.
Not the first try
Administration officials floated the idea during Trump’s first term, saying a roomier space would widen access. Trump dropped it, telling Fox News before his 2017 inauguration that the press “went crazy,” so he decided not to move it.
This time the idea surfaces after more than a year of fights over access. The administration tried to bar reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House grounds, and a federal judge, Timothy Kelly, blocked it from reinstating that ban last week. The White House also cut the Associated Press out of the Oval Office and some other spaces after the wire service declined to use “Gulf of America.” The Pentagon has also tightened press access.
The building plans
Trump has other construction in mind. He is building a ballroom, and he has talked about adding a second floor to part of the West Wing that he calls the “Upper West Wing.” NPR reported in January that the press briefing room and workspace sit directly under the section he wants to build on.
Why the timing matters
The White House has no press secretary at the moment. Katie Zacharia left the job days after starting it, as we covered in our report on her exit. The White House has not announced any decision to move reporters, and it has not said who would brief the press in the meantime.
