By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday he may move the White House press corps to a different location.
In a social media post, Trump dismissed a report that he planned to remove the White House press room and restore a historic swimming pool on the site, saying he had never “even thought to do such a stupid thing.”
But he said he could relocate the press corps from its current position in the White House.
“I may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location,” Trump said in the post.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Trump had urged then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt in August to move news conferences out of the White House’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, although the idea was never implemented.
According to the report, the president told aides he would rather have an indoor therapy pool that was installed at the site during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. The Nixon administration replaced the pool with the press briefing room.
Trump has regularly accused US media of unfair reporting about his administration.
Last month, Trump briefly banned journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds and said other outlets could face similar restrictions. Free speech advocates have said the move violated First Amendment protections for a free press.
The White House reinstated their access after an order from a federal judge who deemed the ban likely unconstitutional, although the Trump administration is still contesting the case.
(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington. Editing by Mark Potter and Sergio Non)
