WASHINGTON — A White House official denied an Associated Press reporter access to the in-town press pool, according to a report from The Washington Post‘s Dan Diamond.
When the AP reporter attempted to join, a White House official responded, “No, sorry,” Diamond wrote in a pool report.
The reason for the denial was not immediately clear. The press pool, composed of rotating journalists from major news organizations, provides coverage of the president’s activities and shares reports with other media outlets.
The Trump administration has made it clear that sitting in the Oval Office for a press briefing with the President is not a right but a privilege, one it believes the Associated Press doesn’t take seriously.
According to USASpending.gov, the Associated Press received $20.1 million since 2020 in government contracts. Elon Musk said this week that those contracts had been canceled.
Those contracts were with the Department of State, Department of Defense, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.