White House limits media access to US press secy's office, other areas

The White House restricted the ability of members of the media to access the part of the building that includes Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s office, unless they first make an appointment to do so.

The move is the latest in a series of efforts to tighten control on journalists covering the administration. Earlier this year, the White House kicked the Associated Press out of the pool after the wire service declined to change its style guide for the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. After a legal challenge, the administration took control of pool arrangements from the White House Correspondents’ Association and now routinely selects which outlets will cover the president most closely each day.

Meanwhile at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently demanded news organizations sign on to new reporting limits or turn in their credentials and lose the ability to report full-time from the building. National news organizations including Bloomberg News, five major television networks and the New York Times, all refused.

In a memo to White House correspondents outlining the change, Leavitt and Steven Cheung, the White House Communications Director, cited national security for the new West Wing restriction. They said White House communications staff are now directing National Security Council communications, and as such routinely engage with sensitive material.

“In order to protect such material, and maintain coordination between National Security Council Staff and White House Communications Staff, members of the press are no longer permitted to access Room 140 without prior approval in the form of an appointment with an authorized White House Staff Member,” Leavitt and Cheung wrote.

The change is effective immediately.

The move will limit the way that reporters can interact with the senior press officials most familiar with President Donald Trump’s thinking.

Credentialed media members have previously been allowed to walk from the briefing room up through to an area of the West Wing known as “Upper Press,” which includes Leavitt’s and Cheung’s offices. Reporters at the White House frequently file up to speak to senior staff members, knocking on their doors to ask questions and seek immediate market-impacting clarity on the president’s frequent social media-driven policy changes.

That relative openness has been true for several consecutive administrations, including those of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Trump’s own first term. The space was briefly closed off early in Bill Clinton’s administration, but reopened as part of an effort to mend ties with the press.

Media will continue to have access to the lower-floor press offices just off the briefing room, which is staffed by lower-ranking press aides, Leavitt and Cheung said.

“The White House Correspondents’ Association unequivocally opposes any effort to limit journalists from areas within the communications operations of the White House that have long been open for newsgathering, including the press secretary’s office,” WHCA President Weijia Jiang said in a statement.

“The new restrictions hinder the press corps’ ability to question officials, ensure transparency, and hold the government accountable, to the detriment of the American public,” Jiang said.

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