The Trump administration removed the news wire spot from its daily White House press pool, stripping the daily, intimate access to presidential activities the Associated Press and other legacy outlets have enjoyed for decades.
The White House announced the plan on Tuesday after losing a legal battle in an effort to ban the AP from the daily press pool due to a disagreement with the outlet over what to call the newly named “Gulf of America.”
The AP, Reuters, and Bloomberg were long part of the press pool, which allowed guaranteed, regular access to the president. Under the new policy, all three outlets will lose customary newswire spots in the pool and will instead be part of a larger rotation with about 30 other newspapers and print outlets.
The outlets slammed Tuesday’s decision, with Reuters saying, “It is essential to democracy that the public have access to independent, impartial and accurate news about their government.”
“Any steps by the U.S. government to limit access to the president threatens that principle, both for the public and the world’s media,” the statement continued.
Leavitt will now determine the pool members on a daily basis “to ensure that the president’s message reaches targeted audiences and that outlets with applicable subject-matter expertise are present as events warrant,” according to Reuters.
A White House official said outlets will be eligible to be included in the pool “irrespective of the substantive viewpoint expressed by an outlet.”
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, the AP said it was “deeply disappointed that the administration has chosen to restrict the access of all wire services, whose fast and accurate White House coverage informs billions of people every single day, rather than reinstate The Associated Press to the wire pool.”
“The wire services represent thousands of news organizations across the U.S. and the world over. Our coverage is used by local newspapers and television stations in all 50 states to inform their communities,” the statement continued. “The administration’s actions continue to disregard the fundamental American freedom to speak without government control or retaliation. This is a grave disservice to the American people.”
The press pool is a rotating group of 18 people, including one of five television stations, one of 30 print outlets, wire services such as the AP, a rotating print seat, a radio seat, and photographers. The journalists attend intimate daily events inside the White House, such as speeches or executive order signings, and relay news reports to hundreds of other news outlets.
NBC host Kelly O’Donnell, former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, touted the significance of the news wire spot in a post to X following the Trump administration’s move to axe the slot.
“Wire reporters are among the most knowledgeable and dedicated to the White House beat,” she said in a post to X. “They are on duty every day of the year and anywhere in the world needed to cover a president. Their work is a key building block for other media’s work. Wires fill a critical role in the public’s understanding of government and important events.”
As a global news wire service, the AP provides syndicated content to a host of outlets. That means the AP distributes its coverage for a fee to other outlets, which can then republish the content on their own channels.
Four billion people read news sourced from the AP every day. In 2023, 82% of the AP’s revenue came from selling its content to other media outlets, according to the news wire.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES TAKEOVER OF PRESS ROTATION FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENTS
The Trump administration’s move to eliminate the news wire spot altogether allows the White House to have the final word on the AP’s participation in the White House press corps after losing a court battle to limit the outlet’s access to the president.
The outlet was initially blocked from the daily press pool due to its refusal to comply with the president’s executive order renaming the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America” in its stylebook. However, a recent court order ruled the Trump administration could not block the AP from accessing press events over disagreements surrounding “Gulf of America” language.
