Trump’s New Press Secretary Unveils Huge Shake-Up for White House Reporters

President Trump’s new press secretary on Tuesday announced that the White House will revamp its briefing room to allow “new media” outlets, and reinstate the press privileges of dozens of outlets that were “wrongly revoked by the previous administration,” including roughly 440 journalists.Karoline Leavitt announced the move during her first briefing, saying Mr. Trump is ready to adjust the administration around “the new media landscape.” “We welcome independent journalists, podcasters and social media influencers,” she said, adding that anyone who wishes to apply can go to whitehouse.gov/newmedia.“As long as you are creating news content of the day and are a legitimate independent journalist, you are welcome to cover this White House,” she said. “In keeping with this revolutionary media approach that President Trump deployed during the campaign, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room, because according to recent polling from Gallup, Americans trust in mass media has fallen to a record low,” she told the press corps.In her first official briefing, Ms. Leavitt, 27, said briefing room seats that were occupied by White House staff in previous administrations would now be filled by new press members. The first person she called on was Mike Allen of Axios; the second question went to Breitbart News’ Matt Boyle.Traditionally, the Associated Press gets the first question, with Democratic administrations focusing daily on the front row, which includes the main networks of CBS, NBC, and CBS. Usually, the spokesmen then go through the second row, too, calling on reporters from the New York Times and Washington Post and others. Unlike the Biden administration, Ms. Leavitt called on reporters from unfriendly outlets — the AP got the third question, followed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and NBC’s Peter Alexander. She also called on the Times’ David Sanger before working to the back of the room, where reporters rarely get called on.Ms. Leavitt is the youngest person ever to hold the position. The job has not been held by anyone younger than 30 years old since 1969, during President Nixon’s administration. Yet she’s hardly new to Team Trump, having served as the national press secretary for his 2024 campaign.The new spokeswoman, dressed in a burgundy pantsuit with a cross necklace prominently displayed, handled her first briefing like a steely veteran. Whereas President Biden’s last spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, almost always handed over the podium to a top staffer and routinely took long pauses to furiously thumb through a briefing book with ready-made answers, Ms. Leavitt did none of that. Instead, she held court for 50 minutes — alone — and spoke extemporaneously throughout.Her voice wavered just a bit as she opened the session in the packed-to-the-gills James S. Brady Briefing Room just off the Oval Office, but she quickly caught her stride as she ripped through an opening statement that listed the achievements the president has already accomplished in eight short days.While it was her first day in battle, she mixed it up with much older press veterans who were bent on making her slip up. At one point, after a reporter asked about President Trump’s order to place a temporary freeze on all federal grants and loans, “I have now been asked and answered this question four times. To individuals at home who receive direct assistance from the federal government: You will not be impacted by this federal freeze.” The legacy press reacted as expected. Within minutes of her briefing ending, the liberal website Mediaite had published a piece headlined, “Trump Press Secretary Kicks Off First Briefing Scolding The Press, Heralding Rise of Independent Media.” In her briefing, Ms. Leavitt made clear that the administration is not happy with the quality of the coverage, telling reporters that “we know for a fact that there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that.” She committed to “telling the truth from this podium every single day,” and said the White House would “call out” press outlets for pushing any perceived misinformation.While just five years out of college, Ms. Leavitt is already a political veteran. As a junior in college, she interned in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence. After graduating, she served as Mr. Trump’s assistant press secretary during his last administration, learning the ropes from press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.In between her stints in the White House, she served as a communications director for Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, who was then the fourth-ranking House Republican and has since been nominated for the post of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.She launched a bid for a U.S. House seat in New Hampshire in 2022, campaigning on her conservative values and gun rights, winning the Republican primary in an upset victory. Mr. Trump congratulated her on her victory “against all odds,” adding that she had “wonderful energy and wisdom.” Yet she lost in the general election to the incumbent Democrat, Chris Pappas.

Trump’s New Press Secretary Unveils Huge Shake-Up for White House Reporters

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