In the Trump administration’s latest assertion of power over the press corps, the White House intends to take over the seating assignments in the press briefing room, according to a senior official. The plan may cause a tug-of-war with the White House Correspondents’ Association, the independent group that currently assigns seats and manages the relationship between the White House and the press corps. When Axios reported on the potential seating chart changes on Sunday morning, some Trump allies cheered the news as yet another way to constrict the mainstream media establishment and elevate explicitly pro-Trump opinion outlets.
“Yes to this – keep it going @PressSec,” the first press secretary from Trump’s first term, Sean Spicer, wrote on X to his counterpart Karoline Leavitt. A senior White House official confirmed the plan to CNN but did not add any details. Several correspondents said a shakeup to the seating chart has been expected since the changes would be full of symbolism and would be celebrated by pro-Trump media outlets.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by their employers to speak publicly. “It doesn’t really matter where people sit,” a White House correspondent said. “But it does matter when the White House tries to impact what questions are asked, and how stories are covered, by taking control away from an elected group.
” That group is the correspondents’ association, which is governed by a rotat.