White House to change media access rules in dispute with AP

The system had been in place for years and managed by the media themselves. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt announced a change in the rules for press access on Tuesday, February 25. The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), which had previously managed the system, reported that the "pool," the small group of journalists with privileged access to the president , admitted for example to the Oval Office or his plane, "Air Force One," would be opened to new media, this time chosen by the American executive. "We are giving power back to the people," said Karoline Leavitt, assuring that "hundreds" of journalists deserved such access.

"The press pool will be comprised of the White House communications team," she continued, adding, however, that "traditional media, which have been part of the press pool for decades, will still be allowed to participate." Until now, admission to this restricted group was decided by the WHCA, an association created in 1914.

The latter immediately criticized the Trump administration for "tearing apart the independence of the press." "In a free country, leaders do not select the media," she said in a statement. The White House's decision "does not give power back to the people, it gives power to the White House," criticized Jacqui Heinrich, a journalist for the Fox News channel, popular with conservatives, and a member of the WHCA board of directors, on X.

The announcement comes in the midst of a standoff between the White House and the American agency Associated Press (AP), which has historically always been part of the restricted circle of journalists allowed to get close to the American president, but which is now banned. The American executive accuses it of not conforming to the new name of the Gulf of Mexico, renamed "Gulf of America" ​​by Donald Trump.