President Donald Trump has suggested he may boot the journalists and media who cover the president from their longtime press briefing room inside the White House.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said he "may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location."
His comment comes after The New York Times reported Oct. 20 that Trump had told then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in August to move reporters out of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, which has been the home of the White House press corps for more than five decades.
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That idea wasn't put into action, and Leavitt departed later in the month. There's no current press secretary after the departure of Katie Zacharia, who held the job for five days earlier this month.
According to the Times, Trump also told aides that moving the press corps from its current position would allow for the return of an indoor therapy pool that was installed at the site during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. The Nixon administration replaced the pool with the press briefing room.
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Trump denied those plans in his social media post. "There is a Fake News report out there that I am going to remove the White House Press Room and bring back the old Swimming Pool, which lies directly underneath. Although I may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location, the old swimming pool will never be brought back. I NEVER even thought to do such a stupid thing!"
Trump has regularly called out what he considers unfair reporting about his administration. In September, the president sought to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, saying he was frustrated by their reporting "fake news." A federal judge ordered the White House on Oct. 13 to continue allowing access to reporters from those outlets, although the Trump administration is contesting the ruling.
Prior to that, Trump banned the Associated Press in February 2025 when the outlet declined to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in its coverage. A federal judge ordered the restrictions lifted in April 2025.
What is the White House Briefing Room?
Since 1970, the White House press corps has met in the press briefing room, which was constructed during President Richard Nixon's term. The small theater was designed especially for television news coverage.
The room was renamed the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Feb. 11, 2000, in honor of James Brady, the White House press secretary who was shot and seriously injured in an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. Reagan was also shot in the incident and spent a dozen days in the hospital recovering, according to the George W. Bush White House Archives.
A 2006 renovation led to improved work spaces, along with better online connections, lighting, and cooling; President George W. Bush reopen the renovated briefing room on July 11, 2007.
Contributing: Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY; and Reuters.
Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump suggests he might move press corps out of the White House
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/24/president-trump-move-press-from-white-house/92414960007/