Donald Trump continued to roast the mainstream media with a suggestion that he might get rid of the White House press pool and replace it with a swimming pool.
The President has taken his mistrust of the press to new levels of late, banning outlets from the White House including MS Now, CNN and Politico, with all three attempting to fight their way back in via the courts.
Now, Trump has taken to Truth Social to suggest the White House press pool could be making a much more literal change going forward.
He posted a side by side image of the current White House Press Room next to that of a luxurious swimming pool.
The photo of the press room was captioned ‘Fake News’ while the photo of the pool was labeled ‘FDR Pool.’
The room was a tight one taken up mostly by the hypothetical swimming pool – named after former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – and many of Trump’s preferred gold accoutrements.
Trump has often used AI and photoshop to show off both real and fictional ideas for his mass renovation of the White House and Washington DC.
The President banned the news outlets last Friday in a fiery social media post accusing them of peddling ‘fake news.’ He was reportedly shown a slate of negative coverage from the outlets by his aide Natalie Harp in the moments before the ban was announced.
Donald Trump continued to roast the mainstream media with a suggestion that he might get rid of the White House press pool and replace it with a swimming pool
Trump has taken to Truth Social to suggest the White House press pool could be making a much more literal change going forward. He posted a side by side image of the current White House Press Room next to that of a luxurious swimming pool
Still, a Politico reporter’s credentials were confiscated on Thursday after the ruling allowing re-entry took effect. An MS NOW reporter also had their credentials taken and was denied access, the outlet reported.
The three outlets filed their lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday and the case has rapidly progressed.
In solidarity with the banned outlets, major broadcasters like Fox News, NBC, CBS and ABC – known as the TV pool responsible for covering presidential coverage on a rotating basis – have refused to cover the President in response.
It was believed the White House had made a U-turn on its media ban on Thursday, allowing reporters back in after initially turning them away before Xi Jinping and Donald Trump’s summit.
‘CNN was allowed back into the White House on Thursday at noon,’ host Kaitlan Collins posted on X after the debacle.
That came after US District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order early Thursday morning, effectively forcing the Trump administration to restore access to Politico, CNN and MS NOW, which the President banned last Friday.
However, that lift appeared to last just a few hours as CNN announced their own ban live on the air as the White House festivities were getting underway.
‘CNN was denied access moments ago to cover the guest arrivals for President Trump’s state dinner for Xi Jinping,’ Erin Burnett confirmed.
The photo of the press room was captioned ‘Fake News’ while the photo of the pool was labeled ‘FDR Pool’
Burnett said that the White House was refusing to confirm that the ban had been lifted.
She added that it was unclear ‘if, when CNN could return’ to covering the White House.
MS Now senior producer Kyle Griffin confirmed that his network had also been denied access.
The network’s White House reporter Laura Barrón-López said on air that when she spoke to a staffer she was told to ‘talk to Steven,’ in reference to White House Communications Director Steven Cheung.
The media blackout has prevented widespread coverage of the meetings, and the broadcasters have mostly not taken any of the events live.
New media outlets like Real America’s Voice, a MAGA-friendly network, have filled the void with YouTube streams.
Given the ban on CNN and MS NOW, the broadcast tents they used to occupy on White House grounds are now vacant with their lights off, and correspondents have opted instead to shoot live shots from the streets outside the presidential residence.
It is unclear when the White House will officially restore the outlets’ credentials.
