The New Kids in the Room

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In early December, Natalie Winters was sitting in the studio of War Room, the renegade podcast and digital show she cohosts with Steve Bannon, when Bannon asked if she was interested in making things more official—as the show’s first-ever White House correspondent.

“My first thought was, How the heck is that going to materialize?” Winters said recently. The plan, as it turns out, was already in the works. On paper, the White House briefing room is the purview of the independent White House Correspondents’ Association, but Donald Trump’s transition team was serious about making some major changes to who had access to ask questions. In fact, Winters said, Bannon had already been in conversation with Trump advisers Jason Miller and Boris Epshteyn about getting her set up with some sort of credential. 

Weeks later, the twenty-three-year-old Winters—who has boasted of holding transphobic and Islamophobic views—posed in front of the White House with a pink “appointment” badge around her neck. The Daily Mail, along with much of social media, immediately jumped on her first-day outfit—sneakers, a black sweater, and a short white skirt. “It feels very high school,” Winters said, of her initiation into the new institution.

Winters’s appearance inside the press room was perhaps the most colorful illustration of the Trump administration’s determination to fundamentally reshape coverage of the White House, similar to what’s unfolding at the Pentagon. Last week, the White House took the dramatic step of barring the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, over the wire service’s refusal to restyle the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America—prompting a strong condemnation from the correspondents’ association. Meanwhile, the press room now has dedicated “new media” space—reserved for reporters from outside the traditional formats of Washington coverage. Among those who have so far held that seat are Breitbart’s Matt Boyle, the conservative podcaster Sage Steele, Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski, and Axios’s Mike Allen. (The first two questions that Karoline Leavitt took as press secretary were from Allen and Boyle.) The White House says that more than twelve thousand reporters have so far applied for the privilege of holding the seat.

White House officials portray the move as nothing more than a natural evolution of Trump’s successful podcast strategy during the campaign. “It’s a continuation of the nontraditional approach President Trump utilized on the campaign trail,” a senior White House official told CJR. “We felt it would be irresponsible of us not to make sure those new media voices had a seat at the table.”

But by elevating friendly right-wing provocateurs to an equal footing with more mainstream, established voices, officials are also making it clear who they’re more interested in hearing from—and the type of question they’re interested in being asked. Boyle used his time to thank Leavitt for “actually giving voices to new media outlets that represent millions and millions of Americans,” and asked if the public should expect the “breakneck” pace of the White House to continue. (“Absolutely,” Leavitt replied.) Steele, who was suspended from her job at ESPN after making offensive comments about Barack Obama’s race on a podcast, held the new media seat on the same day she would be in attendance for the signing of an executive order banning transgender women athletes from college sports; she used her moment in the press room to toss Leavitt a softball about how “important it is to the president to get Congress to pass legislation so there are no instances like the past administration, that really tried to destroy Title IX.” The conservative podcaster John Ashbrook used his opportunity to ask Leavitt if the media was “out of touch with Americans” by not supporting tougher action on immigration and the border. “I think the media certainly is out of touch,” Leavitt responded with a laugh. (Ashbrook later told Fox News that he got “a lot of eye rolls and a lot of smirks” from the other reporters in the room.)

“New media” seat holders won’t exactly be breaking down barriers. They’ll be joining a room that, in reality, is open to any member of the press who requests temporary access—without all the fanfare of getting to ask the first question of the day. For now, the actual reserved “new media” seat itself is typically one along the left wall of the briefing room, where White House officials tend to sit when present. (Think Deborah Birx during Trump’s infamous disinfectant riff during the pandemic.)

“It’s certainly less awkward than the ‘Skype seat’ thing Sean Spicer started during Trump 1,” one current White House reporter told CJR in a text message, referring to the practice, in the first Trump administration, of beaming in reporters from outside the Beltway—who always seemed to ask questions that the press secretary wanted to answer. “It’s a bit disingenuous to say [Leavitt] is opening the room more than prior administrations since it’s always been open to anyone who wants to come in on a day pass.” (The reporter agreed to speak only on the condition of not being named; traditional media reporters are wary of starting conflict with a clearly combative White House.) 

The reporter went on: “If she wants to bring in a steady stream of right-wing podcasters, shitposters, and the occasional video-sharing site owner to ask predictable questions that put her in a safe space, that’s certainly her prerogative. But there are plenty of news outlets of all stripes that she could be inviting in to ask substantive questions, and thus far it doesn’t look like she’s making an effort to encourage that, which is a shame.”

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