Karoline Leavitt Says It’s Time For ‘Elitist Journalists’ To Make Way For New Media 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt detailed Wednesday how President Donald Trump’s administration is ending the “elitist” media’s century-long stronghold on reporters’ access to cover the president.

Leavitt announced during Tuesday’s press briefing that the White House press pool, a select group reporters assigned to cover and transcribe the president, will no longer be dictated by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) in order to give outlets who have been excluded from the press pool the opportunity to cover the White House. The press secretary told Fox News’ Lawrence Jones that “elitist journalists” will no longer have the power to “dictate” which reporters have access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other significant areas related to the presidency.

“For your audience who may not understand what has happened at this White House for decades, you have a group of journalists here in Washington, D.C. who dictate which reporters go into the most intimate spaces of the American presidency. The Oval Office, who gets to ride on Air Force One, and that system hasn’t changed since the early 1900s,” Leavitt said. “Obviously, the media today in 2025 look a heck of a lot different than it did when the White House Correspondents’ Association was formed. So, this is a long overdue change. A lot of press secretaries and White House’s have talked about making this change, we’re just the first to do it. We’re shaking up Washington in more ways than one.”

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Leavitt clarified to Fox News that legacy media outlets and members of the WHCA will continue to have access to restricted grounds at the White House.

“Moving forward, we’re going to expand the pool’s access to the president, to non-traditional journalists,” Leavitt continued. “Legacy media will still have a seat [and] will still have a seat in our briefing room. But we’re gonna bring new voices into the fold. The only people who are upset about this are those who feel like it’s a knock on their power that they’ve had over this system. The power belongs to the people, not elitist journalists in Washington, D.C.”

The new shakeup in the White House angered many members of the WHCA. The organization’s president, Eugene Daniels, said this move “tears at the independence of a free press” by allowing the government to choose who covers the White House.

“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” Daniels said.

Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich called the new rule a “short-sighted decision” that will cause both conservative and liberal administrations to kick out outlets for political reasons.

The WHCA was founded in February 1914 after former President Woodrow Wilson threatened to end press conferences over his frustration with evening newspapers quoting remarks he considered to be off the record.

The Trump White House has extended an arm to non-traditional media outlets since taking office on Jan. 20. During her first briefing, Leavitt announced the creation of the “new media seat” in the front of the room that had traditionally been reserved for White House press office staff in order to allow independent journalists, smaller outlets and podcast hosts to access the briefing room.

Trump appeared on several popular podcasts, including “The Joe Rogan Experience” and Theo Von’s show, in order to reach younger audiences during his 2024 campaign. The non-traditional media blitz proved successful, with one undecided voter telling MSNBC in November that he voted for Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris’ refusal to appear on Rogan’s show.