DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The Trump administration’s latest attempts to curtail press leaks disallows White House reporters from accessing the inner offices of senior communication officials in the West Wing in order to protect national security secrets.
A memo released to the reporters Friday evening addressed from the National Security Council (NSC) to President Donald Trump’s White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt states reporters should no longer freely walk into their offices, known as “Upper Press,” located in Room 140, just feet away from the Oval Office.
The White House’s communications staff has also begun directing communications for the National Security Council due to a recent “structural change,” the memo states. The policy cordoning off “Upper Press” thereby ensures the security of sensitive material, the memo argues.
Reporters can continue to speak with more junior press aides outside the White House Briefing Room, the memo adds.
Cheung claimed in a Friday post on X that reporters had been caught eavesdropping on meetings with senior members of the Trump administration in Upper Press. Some reporters also supposedly made surreptitious recordings of those engagements and photographed sensitive documents.
“Cabinet Secretaries routinely come into our office for private meetings, only to be ambushed by reporters waiting outside our doors,” he said.
The White House Correspondents’ Association said in a statement Friday it “unequivocally opposes” the move and that the press secretary’s office has long been open for newsgathering.
“The new restrictions hinder the press corps’ ability to question officials, ensure transparency, and hold the government accountable, to the detriment of the American public,” said WHCA President and senior CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang in a statement.
Former President Bill Clinton Communications Director George Stephanopoulos blocked reporters’ access to Upper Press in 1993, overturning a 20-year precedent, according to press clips, inviting a public squabble with the press corps. Clinton soon after overturned the policy in an effort to improve his media coverage.
When Mark Gearan replaced Stephanopoulos as Clinton’s communications director, Stephanopoulos wrote to his successor in a note, “Mark, I can only give you one piece of advice: Open the hallway!” according to a 1993 USA Today report.
