Back in the day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had an indoor White House pool meant to ease the pain in his polio-ravaged legs. The swimming pool was later covered over in the Nixon years to make way for the White House press pool, but President Trump has an eye on returning the James S. Brady Briefing Room to its former glory and evicting the media from the White House. As the New York Times reports, that once-theoretical idea has morphed into a serious internal push to relocate reporters across the street to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Former press secretary Karoline Leavitt was urged by Trump to make it her "last legacy," and allies have circulated mock-ups of the briefing room restored to the FDR era. Trump recently amplified the concept on Truth Social, contrasting a photo of the current briefing room labeled "Fake News" with a glitzy "FDR Pool."
Reporter Maggie Haberman and her Times colleagues frame the move as more than a simple renovation: It would be hard for future presidents to reverse and would cap an escalating campaign against major outlets, from revoked credentials and lawsuits to Justice Department inquiries and FBI subpoenas. "All options remain on the table," White House communications director Steven Cheung says, "and we will make an announcement when appropriate." The article lays out who is driving the effort and what it could mean for press access. Read the full piece in the New York Times.
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