Will decide who gets in for press briefing: Trump

Washington, January 18

President-elect Donald Trump said his administration would not move the press briefing room out of the White House into a larger space but choose the media representatives who go into it, according to an interview with Fox News.

Trump’s team had discussed moving news conferences out of the small West Wing briefing room to the Old Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House complex, incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday on ABC. “The press went crazy, so I said let’s not move it. But some people in the press will not be able to get in,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

“We have so many people who want to go in so we’ll have to just pick the people to go into the room — I’m sure other people will be thrilled about that,” he said, adding: “But we offered a much larger room because we need a much larger room and we offered to do that, but they went crazy. And they’ll be begging for a much larger room very soon, you watch.”

The current press room has about 49 seats, which are assigned by the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA). Trump has had a contentious relationship with some prominent US news organisation. — Reuters