White House says it ‘will decide’ which news outlets cover Trump, rotating some traditional ones

The White House said Tuesday that its officials “will decide” which news outlets can regularly cover President Trump up close — a sharp break from a century of tradition in which a pool of independently chosen news organizations go where the chief executive does and hold him accountable on behalf of regular Americans.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services. She cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, which would be more inclusive and restore “access back to the American people” who elected Trump.

“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing. “A select group of D.C.-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.”

She spoke a day after a federal judge refused to immediately order the White House to restore the Associated Press’ access to many presidential events. The news outlet, citing the 1st Amendment, sued Leavitt and two other White House officials for barring the AP from some presidential events over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” as Trump ordered. The AP has said its style would retain the “Gulf of Mexico” name but also would note Trump’s decision.

U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden said the AP had not demonstrated it had suffered irreparable harm. But he urged the Trump administration to reconsider its two-week-old ban, saying that case law in the circuit “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.”

McFadden’s decision was only for the moment, however. He told attorneys for the Trump administration and the AP that the issue required more exploration before ruling. Another hearing was scheduled for late March.

The AP Stylebook is the default editing standard for publications across the U.S. and worldwide.

Another Trump executive order to change the name of the United States’ largest mountain back to Mt. McKinley from Denali is being recognized by the AP Stylebook. Trump has the authority to do so because the mountain is completely within the U.S., the AP has said.

Kellman writes for the Associated Press.