President-elect Donald Trump is considering removing mainstream media journalists from the White House press briefing room, according to his son.
Donald Trump Jr. told Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles on Monday that the elder Trump may reorganize the White House press briefing room’s seating arrangement to sideline mainstream media outlets and give credentials to independent news outlets and podcasters. On Trump Jr.’s own podcast, “Triggered,” the president-elect’s son confirmed that he had discussed the idea with his father and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has become a close ally of Trump’s.
“We had the conversation about opening up the press room to a lot of these independent journalists,” said Trump Jr. “If The New York Times has lied, they’ve been adverse to everything, they’re functioning as the marketing arm of the Democrat Party. Why not open it up to people who have larger viewerships, stronger followings?”
Referring to popular podcast host Joe Rogan, who interviewed his father just days before the election, Trump Jr. added, “I’d love to see Rogan in the White House press briefing, or even rotate guys out.”
Shortly after Trump Jr. broke the news, Trump himself issued a demand for The New York Times to apologize for its dishonest coverage of his presidency and campaign.
“Will the failing New York Times apologize to its readers for getting years of ‘Trump’ coverage so wrong? They write such phony ‘junk’ knowing full well how incorrect it is, only meaning to demean,” he said in a post on Truth Social. He noted that one journalist in particular, to whom he referred as “a third-rate writer and fourth-rate intellect,” has written “story after story, always terrible, and yet I almost never speak to her. They do no fact-checking, because facts don’t matter to them.”
Mainstream media outlets have rapidly fallen in popularity, with a majority placing little to no trust in the outlets. According to a Gallup poll published late last month, one-third of Americans place “not very much” trust in mainstream media and even more (36%) do not trust mainstream media “at all.” The share of Americans with either a “great deal” or even just a “fair amount” of trust in mainstream media has fallen from 45% in 2018 to just 31% in 2024.
Much of the sharp decline in trust in mainstream media has been attributed to political bias and a lack of credibility on the part of mainstream journalists. Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos explained that news outlets “must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased.”
He continued, “Lack of credibility isn’t unique to The Post. Our brethren newspapers have the same issue. And it’s a problem not only for media, but also for the nation.”
Bezos also noted the growing influence being wielded by independent and alternative news outlets and podcasters. “Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts, and other unverified news sources,” he observed.
In comments to The Washington Stand, Family Research Council Action Director Matt Carpenter said, “The ultimate irony of the 2024 election season was that the effect of the entire cable news apparatus playing attack dog against President Trump and Republicans was that it incentivized them to utilize the emerging, and much larger, alternative news space.”
He added, “Shows like ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ gave voters a three-hour unedited window into how President Trump interacts with someone who many have come to trust as a source of information: Joe Rogan.”
Carpenter continued: “It’s fitting that the president-elect would consider shuffling the White House press room to reflect the updated media environment as market share and audience plummets for cable news networks and podcasters and independent journalists rise.”
Trump made use of independent and alternative media, especially podcasts, in his historic 2024 campaign. Over 22 million X users listened in to Trump’s two-hour audio interview with tech billionaire Musk in August, after the latter purchased the social media platform that banned Trump, then the sitting U.S. president, nearly four years ago.
Trump’s appearance on the “Impaulsive” podcast with YouTuber Logan Paul garnered over 6 million views, his appearance on “This Past Weekend” with comedian Theo Von earned over 14 million views, and his appearance on comedian Andrew Schulz’s “Flagrant” scored nearly 7 million views. Trump’s interview with Rogan, released less than 12 days before the election, has currently been watched by nearly 52 million people.
Vice President-elect JD Vance also ran the podcast gamut. His interview with Von garnered over 6 million views, his appearances on the “Full Send Go” podcast and the “Tim Dillon Show” scored about 2 million views each, and his interview with Rogan totaled over 18 million views.
A number of YouTube viewers cited Vance’s interviews as a key factor in deciding who to vote for, with many expressing shock that Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had decided to label Vance “weird.” One user commented, “This guy is supposed to be weird? He’s like the most normal, down-to-earth guy.”
Another, referring to the length and depth of the interviews, said, “Is it me or [do] these podcasters do a 10 times better job bringing out the real interviewee than a ‘journalist’ ever could?”
The night of the election, Musk told X users, “You are the media now.” If Trump does, in fact, reorganize the White House press briefing room, podcasters, independent news outlets, and even influential X users may end up being the new media.
Originally published by The Washington Stand.