Trump repeatedly pressed former press secretary Karoline Leavitt to remove reporters before she left in August, and he has since pitched the idea to other aides, the Times reports. Maggie Haberman, one of its reporters, called eviction "very much on the table still"; no decision or date has been reported.
The room, the pool and the court fight
- FDR's swimming pool under the briefing room was built in 1933 with money raised by a New York Daily News campaign (White House archive).
- Nixon built the briefing room over the pool; the press corps has worked there since 1970.
- Judge Timothy Kelly's indefinite preliminary injunction restored White House grounds access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which Trump is fighting in court. It covers their hard passes, not the room itself (The Guardian).