Trump Says He May Move the White House Press Corps Out of the Briefing Room

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he may move the White House press corps out of its longtime home in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, in a social media post that also denied a report about restoring the swimming pool beneath the room.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump rejected the idea that he planned to remove the press room and revive the old pool. He said he had never even thought of doing such a thing, and that the pool would never be brought back. In the same post, he left the door open to moving the reporters themselves.

"I may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location," Trump said in the post.

The report he was answering

The New York Times reported on October 20 that Trump had told Karoline Leavitt, who was then his press secretary, in August that he wanted news conferences moved out of the Brady Briefing Room. The idea was never put into action, and Leavitt left the job later in August.

According to the Times, Trump also told aides that moving the press corps out of its current position would clear the way for the return of an indoor therapy pool. The pool was installed at the site during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Under President Richard Nixon, the pool site was replaced by the press briefing room.

Trump denied the pool part of that account in his post on Saturday. He did not deny that he had raised moving the reporters.

A room reporters have used since 1970

The briefing room was constructed in 1970 during the Nixon administration to give a growing White House press corps more space. It replaced the swimming pool that had been installed in 1934 for Roosevelt's physical therapy.

About 200 journalists make up the White House press corps, but the room holds just 49 chairs. The White House Correspondents' Association decides which news organizations get the assigned seats.

The room was renamed for James S. Brady on February 11, 2000. Brady, a former press secretary, was shot and seriously injured on March 30, 1981, during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. A renovation in 2006 improved the work spaces, lighting and connections, and President George W. Bush reopened the room on July 11, 2007.

There is currently no White House press secretary. Katie Zacharia, the most recent holder of the job, departed earlier this month after five days in the role.

The wider fight over press access

Trump has regularly accused the news media of unfair reporting about his administration, and Saturday's post landed in the middle of a running legal fight over access to the White House.

In September, the president sought to bar reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House grounds, saying he was frustrated by their reporting. A federal judge ordered the White House on October 13 to continue allowing access to reporters from those outlets. The Trump administration is contesting that ruling.

Earlier, in February 2025, Trump barred the Associated Press from some White House spaces after the outlet declined to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America in its coverage. A federal judge ordered those restrictions lifted in April 2025.

Trump gave no location, date or plan for a move on Saturday, and the White House has announced no change to where the press corps works.