Trump Reportedly Wants Reporters Out So Badly He May Replace the Historic White House Press Room With a Pool

The White House has declined to rule out restoring the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room to the indoor pool that still exists beneath its floor, following a report that Donald Trump has discussed moving the press corps out of the White House.

According to a New York Times report on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, Trump raised the idea of evicting reporters from the briefing room during one of his final meetings with then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Asked about the plan, communications director Steven Cheung said: 'All options remain on the table.' The room sits on top of an indoor pool built for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

'All Options Remain on the Table'

The Times report, by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, said Trump called the eviction of the press corps Leavitt's 'last legacy' during one of their final meetings. According to the Times, Trump discussed the idea on multiple occasions before Leavitt left the administration in late August, but it did not advance at the time.

Trump has also told aides that he wants to restore Roosevelt's indoor pool, according to the Times, possibly relocating reporters to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door.

Cheung did not deny the report. 'All options remain on the table, and we will make an announcement when appropriate,' he told the Times. He added that America is 'rightly distrustful of the fake news media'.

The White House currently has no press secretary, according to TheWrap. Leavitt had previously overseen changes to how the press pool is chosen, with the administration announcing in February 2025 that it would decide which outlets joined the pool covering the president.

The White House Correspondents' Association, then led by Eugene Daniels, said at the time: 'This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.' The administration had also barred Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One, prompting a legal battle.

According to the Times, Trump's advisers have encouraged him 'to take drastic measures to punish journalists'.

'Fake News Before, FDR Pool After'

Trump floated the idea publicly last month. On Sunday, 27 September, he posted side-by-side images on Truth Social captioned 'Fake News Before, FDR Pool After'. The 'before' picture showed the briefing room as it looks today, while the 'after' image turned it into a pool with gold ornamentation in the style of his Mar-a-Lago resort.

The Wall Street Journal reported around the same time that Trump had repeatedly discussed removing the press from the White House and moving them to a nearby building, citing current and former officials.

The administration explored moving reporters to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building or another building, the Journal said, although advisers pushed back.

A senior official told the Journal that Trump had no plans to relocate the press corps. According to the Journal, aide Natalie Harp played Trump clips of MS NOW anchors criticising the administration hours before his Truth Social post.

From Roosevelt's Pool to Nixon's Press Room

The indoor pool opened on 2 June 1933, after a fundraising campaign led by the New York Daily News for Roosevelt, who used it as therapy for his polio, the White House Historical Association says.

The Daily News fund reached its goal within two weeks, raising more than $12,000, and construction took about three months, according to the association. Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson all used the pool frequently. Nixon did not, with one magazine noting at the time that he liked to swim 'but not indoors nor in fresh water'.

To make room for a growing White House press corps, the pool was covered with flooring in 1970. The project architect said Nixon wanted no harm done to the pool, so the room was designed to allow it to be restored easily.

President Richard Nixon had the press briefing room built above the pool, and reporters have held briefings there since April 1970. 'The pool has been covered but remains beneath the floor of the press centre,' the association says.

President Gerald Ford, a keen swimmer, considered restoring the indoor pool but chose a cheaper outdoor pool, funded by private donations, which opened in 1975.

The room was later named after James Brady, Ronald Reagan's press secretary, who was shot and seriously wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan. During Reagan's first term, the couches and desks were replaced with a lectern and permanent seating.

The report comes amid an escalating fight between the administration and the press. Last week, US District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a preliminary injunction preventing the administration from reinstating its ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters on White House grounds while the lawsuit proceeds, TheWrap reported.

On Tuesday, Trump also told reporter Andrew Feinberg to 'be careful' during an exchange in the Oval Office.

The White House did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment, and Cheung said only that an announcement would come 'when appropriate'.