Overview
- The New York Times reported this week that President Trump repeatedly raised the idea of converting the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room back into the old indoor pool and moving the press, a proposal that did not advance while Karoline Leavitt was press secretary.
- On Friday Leavitt told HBO’s Real Time that she had seen the idea and that the president had been “flirting” with restoring the pool beneath the briefing room.
- On Saturday Trump posted a denial on Truth Social saying he would not bring back the pool but adding “I may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location,” which he framed as a possible relocation of the press corps.
- The White House communications director has not ruled out changes, saying that “all options remain on the table,” while litigation continues over the administration’s recent temporary bans on several news outlets.
- The briefing room sits above an unused FDR-era therapy pool covered in 1970, and moving the press would raise practical hurdles about security clearances, pool and TV-pool logistics, and daily reporter access to presidential briefings.