Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:36 pm
Journalists are warning that President-elect Donald Trump is considering not having a White House press office, doing no press briefings, closing down the White House press room, and only having a single pool reporter covering the president. In other words, Trump is kicking around the idea of removing the press from the White House.
Sopan Deb of CBS News flagged Sean Hannity’s talk that Trump doesn’t need a press office:
Sean Hannity: "Why does Donald Trump need a White House press office?" https://t.co/uWooldR3Dm pic.twitter.com/ZEvBuKeosi
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) November 29, 2016
Maggie Haberman of The New York Times backed up what Deb flagged:
This is not idle chastise, it relates to something Trump team is discussing re how to bring changes https://t.co/OGMoTRr3eH
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 29, 2016
It is public knowledge that Sean Hannity and Donald Trump are close. It is also public knowledge that Trump has no use for the press unless they are flattering him. The talk that the president-elect may kick the press out of the White House, or at least greatly restrict their access to direct information should be taken very seriously.
Trump ran the least transparent presidential campaign in decades, so common sense dictates that the president-elect will carry that same lack of openness and disclosure into the White House. If Trump wants to minimize the press, the best way to do it would be to turn the White House into an information fortress.
Donald Trump still has not given a press conference since winning the election. Trump has only held one brief on the record meeting with reporters, which was with The New York Times and his staff tried to cancel it.
This may be the most press hostile administration in decades. If Trump cuts down media access to the White House, it will be the next phase in his war on democracy and access to information that the American people deserve to have.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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