President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed the idea of removing the White House press corps and turning the press briefing room into an indoor swimming pool, according to a New York Times report published on Tuesday.
The report says Trump raised the proposal in an Oval Office meeting with then press secretary Karoline Leavitt in August, telling her that evicting reporters could serve as her “last legacy.” Three sources familiar with the talks said he brought it up with her multiple times before she left the administration on August 27. The plan never moved forward.
Trump wants to restore the indoor pool built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which the Nixon administration covered over to create the space reporters use today. In September he posted images on Truth Social contrasting the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, labelled “Fake News”, with a rendering of a gold-trimmed pool he called the “FDR Pool.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung declined to rule the idea out, saying all options remain on the table and an announcement would come when appropriate. Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has reportedly drawn up a visual mock-up of the proposed pool despite having no role in managing White House facilities.
The report follows a string of administration moves against the press, including Friday’s announcement banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, a ban a federal judge has since blocked indefinitely.
Source: Washington Examiner
