WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will no longer give wire services a permanent spot in the White House press pool following The Associated Press’ victory last week in a lawsuit over its exclusion, The Post has learned.
Instead, the White House is giving a second spot to “print” journalists — a term henceforth including wire reporters — who will get access to President Trump in small event spaces.
It’s the latest major change to the press pool that is given unique access to the president — with the lineup influencing the topics raised with the world’s most powerful man, who answered more than 1,000 queries, mostly in pool-only settings, in his first month back in the White House.
“The makeup of the pool is far more reflective of the media habits of the American people in 2025,” a senior White House official told The Post. “The White House press policy continues to be grounded in fairness for all outlets that wish to cover the White House.”
DC US District Judge Trevor McFadden last week ordered the AP’s restoration to the press pool — after weeks of exclusion over editors’ refusal to update the AP Stylebook to refer to the body of water stretching from Florida to Texas as the “Gulf of America” pursuant to Trump’s official renaming.
McFadden’s ruling contained a glaring loophole that said the AP “cannot be treated worse than its peer wire services” — meaning the end of longstanding special access for all wires may pass legal muster.
For decades, three wires — the AP, Reuters and Bloomberg — were each granted access to all presidential events in smaller venues such as the Oval Office, while journalists for major newspapers, magazines and websites comprising the “print” pool rotation were allowed entry roughly once a month.
There currently are 31 spots in the print rotation, meaning there would be 34 with the wires included.
The two spots for print reporters could nearly double the number of events into which most major print news outlets are admitted, while dramatically decreasing opportunities for the wire services.
It’s unclear if the new composition also will be reflected in travel pools joining Trump aboard Air Force One, for which news outlets must pay substantial amounts of money per flight.
The fight between the AP and the White House over Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico has upended longstanding policies around the press pool.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Feb, 25 that the White House would assume direct control of the composition of the pool — which had for generations been controlled by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA).
The WHCA currently retains other powers afforded deference by past administrations, including control over the 49 assigned briefing room seats.
The three wires’ automatic access already had been curtailed for more than a month — with access limited to one rotating spot per day — with the exclusion of the AP.
The White House press office has presented itself as more transparent and inclusive with its reforms — despite criticism from press-freedom and pro-free speech groups over its action against the Associated Press.
The administration has established a new 50th seat for journalists in the White House briefing room for “new media” — including an assortment of mainstream news websites, conservative journalists and social media personalities with large followings.
Additionally, a separate “new media” spot has been added to the daily pool along with a new secondary TV rotation including both mainstream and conservative-leaning channels to supplement the historical “five families” TV rotation of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC.
Leavitt at her first press briefing announced plans to restore about 400 “hard passes” for journalists that were revoked by the Biden administration as part of an effort to drive out journalist Simon Ateba of Today News Africa, who frequently disrupted briefings by President Biden’s spokespeople.
Ateba himself has not regained his press badge and has since late last year been unable to access the White House grounds due to what a Secret Service official says is a “requirements matter” that was not a “staff policy decision of the current or former administration.”
The issue of press access has been a running battle through both Republican and Democratic administrations.
In 2013, the Obama White House faced a photographer revolt after barring independent cameramen and instead handing out flattering photos of the commander in chief at events.
The Biden White House, meanwhile, devised a novel prescreening process for journalists allowed into large event spaces that historically were open to all journalists on campus — at one point barring The Post, America’s oldest continuously operating daily newspaper, from events for seven months.
