Staff Reports
An emerging statistic offers ample evidence to counter the incessant claims by media outlets that President Donald Trump is engaging in some sort of assault on the free press. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently announced a shift that challenges the longstanding dominion of the White House Correspondents’ Association, a group notoriously known for its left-leaning bias. With this new policy, the administration will have more control over deciding which media outlets can cover President Trump in those cozy, exclusive settings like the Oval Office or aboard Air Force One.
Previously, this cozy club of DC journalists decided which of their peers could enter those intimate spaces. But under Trump’s leadership, there’s a dose of fresh air being blown into the press room. The new policy ensures that while the big five networks—Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS—will still have their seats at the table, other print and radio outlets will finally get a chance at the spotlight. Who knew journalists could be outnumbered in their own game?
When I see reporters complaining about President Trump, I always think about the lack of transparency during the Biden Regime.
Reporters have so much more access to Trump—several times a week, it seems.
Just look at the comparison of questions and answers during the same time… pic.twitter.com/XrPTUWNdJT— 🌴♥️🇺🇸Dixie ♥️s America & Trump🇺🇸♥️🌴 (@DixiDarlen) February 26, 2025
Leavitt deftly pointed out that the traditional media gatekeepers, despite their hold on coverage, will retain their seats in the White House briefing room. They will still partake in larger events, such as the tête-à-tête between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in the East Room. It sounds more like an expansion of access than a shutdown of the press; in fact, it’s hard to argue that the free press is being stifled when one looks at the numbers.
In a telling trend, National Journal revealed that the current president has taken an astonishing 1,009 questions from the media during the early days of his term—substantially more than his predecessors. To contrast, during his first month, Trump managed to grab the mic a whopping seven times more than Joe Biden. In just three days, Trump surpassed the total questions Biden had fielded by the end of his first month in office. It’s hard to suppress a free press when one is bombarding them with questions at record-breaking rates.
Nevertheless, the left is up in arms. Outrageous claims about Trump’s so-called war on journalism abound, with some media figures drawing outlandish comparisons between his policy changes and the tactics seen in authoritarian regimes. One particularly dramatic analyst even invoked memories of Kremlin press tactics to demonstrate how Trump is allegedly attempting to silence dissent. However, those dramatic tales often gloss over past administrations’ questionable approaches to journalism, including the 442 press passes stripped away during Biden’s tenure.
Transparency and engagement with the media do not align with a “free press under siege,” and plenty of statistics support this fact. Trump is actually enhancing press access, expanding pools to include diverse perspectives while highlighting that the real threat to journalism lies not in the White House, but rather in the narrative control tactics of past administrations where real intimidation tactics were used, such as surveilling reporters and restricting access. So let the hyperbole roll in—it’s clear that in Trump’s administration, the press has more opportunities to engage than ever before.
