Leavitt Announces She Will Skip the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner – One America News Network
OAN Staff Abril Elfi
3:43 PM – Sunday, March 16, 2025
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that she will not be present at the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner.
Advertisement
During a recent podcast episode with Sean Spicer, who acted as President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary for the initial six months of 2017, Leavitt revealed that she would not be attending the dinner scheduled for April 26th.
“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and that’s breaking news for ‘The Sean Spicer Show,’” Leavitt remarked.
She further elaborated that the WHCA “has essentially transformed into a monetized monopoly over the White House and the coverage relating to the President of the United States in America.”
“This organization was formed by journalists who have covered the White House for many years. They established it because previous presidents were not holding sufficient press conferences. Under the current president, that issue no longer exists, so media priorities have shifted, particularly in this new digital era,” she stated.
Leavitt also criticized the WHCA for being an “exclusive group,” indicating that they have not entirely embraced new media and independent journalists. She expressed the need to broaden coverage and reassess who belongs in the limited 13-member press pool, which determines who gets to ask questions in the Oval Office and on Air Force One.
“Since we initiated this process of selecting the daily rotation, numerous fresh voices and outlets that have never been part of this contained and privileged group of journalists have gained access to these unique and esteemed spaces, which is crucial for covering this presidency,” Leavitt noted, adding that the White House has received over 15,000 applications for a new media seat in the press briefing room.
In late February, the White House disclosed a new plan that would designate which journalists are part of the 13-member pool covering Trump in restricted settings such as the Oval Office and Air Force One. This marks a departure from the traditional practice where the WHCA selects news outlets independently when the entire press corps cannot be accommodated.
Eugene Daniels, president of the WHCA board and a journalist at Politico, argued that this decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.” However, the White House defended the decision as an upgrade to ensure that the press pool includes more than just legacy media. The Trump administration indicated that the three major wire services – Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Reuters – would no longer hold permanent seats in the pool, but rather would rotate one position among the 13 members.
The White House subsequently suspended the Associated Press from the press pool after the outlet disregarded Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
President Trump also chose not to attend the WHCA dinner during his first term.
Stay informed! Get breaking news alerts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below
