(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt laid down the law Tuesday during her first briefing: “The Trump White House will speak to ALL media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media.”
Leavitt, 27, transformed two front-row seats typically occupied by the press secretary’s staff into the “new media” seats. Calling on Axios’s Mike Allen and Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle first, she took questions without consorting a massive binder of notes.
.@PressSec takes reporters question at the White House during her first briefing. pic.twitter.com/9xGpcreWFO
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) January 28, 2025
Leavitt told a packed room of reporters that data shows the American people’s trust in mass media has reached a “record low.”
She emphasized that swathes of the nation, especially its young people, have turned off the television and shunned newspapers in favor of “podcasts, blogs, social media, and other independent outlets.”
“It’s essential to our team that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape in 2025,” Leavitt declared, eye-to-eye with the likes of CNN, MSNBC, and other so-called journalists whose outlets spent years going after Trump.
Touting Trump’s belief in the First Amendment, Leavitt announced that 440 journalists who had their press passes “wrongly revoked” by the Biden administration would have their credentials restored.
“We’re also opening up this briefing room to new media voices who produce news-related content and whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room,” she said, welcoming “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators” to apply for credentials to cover the White House from the briefing room.
Leavitt led her briefing with a direct message from Trump, who revealed that the mysterious New Jersey drone sightings were authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration for “research purposes.”
There were also drones in the state operated recreationally and privately by hobbyists.
Dropping bombshells like the Trump administration stopping a Biden-era move that would have wasted $50 taxpayer dollars funding “condoms in Gaza,” Leavitt did not hold back as she took on the press corps.
.@PressSec: “We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House … I will hold myself to the truth — and I expect everyone in this room to do the same.” pic.twitter.com/6c1INfGdFV
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 28, 2025
“We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president and his family, and we will not accept that. We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House,” she said.
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by Headline USA, the Daily Caller, The Federalist, and the American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
