We knew significant changes were coming to the press briefing room. In February, White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt revealed that the usual cartel of outlets that have dominated the coverage will no longer be granted a monopoly during the briefings. Our own Katie Pavlich was selected to occupy the New Media Seat last month.
🚨BREAKING NEWS: Our very own @KatiePavlich is in the New Media Seat at the White House Press Briefing!
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 19, 2025
🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/FUwwAnXmHn
Now, the seating chart is being redrawn, as the Trump White House is wresting that responsibility away from the White House Correspondents Association (via Axios):
Good. So ridiculous how the WHCA cartel, which is a journalistic failure and embarrassment, handled the seat assignments. https://t.co/ZhzhzScfg6
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) March 31, 2025
The White House plans to impose its own seating chart for reporters in the briefing room in coming weeks, taking over a function long managed by the reporters themselves through the White House Correspondents' Association.
Why it matters: It's the latest — but likely not the last — effort by the White House to take a heavier hand in shaping who covers President Trump. In public and private, White House officials make it clear they are determined to upend decades-old press corps traditions.
Behind the scenes: Some members of the correspondents' association (WHCA) have been looking for ways to de-escalate. A senior White House official told Axios that a WHCA member had privately raised the possibility of changing the organization's bylaws so the sitting White House press secretary, currently Karoline Leavitt, always serves as WHCA president.
The tough-sell argument for the change: Rekindle collaboration between WHCA and the White House, and ensure buy-in from both.
The official called the possibility an "interesting idea," but said they're "skeptical the association's board could pull it off."
WHCA says it "exists to promote excellence in journalism as well as journalism education, and to ensure robust news coverage of the president and the presidency."
Members could be expected to roundly reject the idea of a press secretary as their president.
Anything that can be done to wreck the establishment media should be supported and endorsed to the fullest. These people are the main manufacturing base for anti-Trump fake news.
Will there be another liberal media meltdown over this change?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member