Most Americans never hear much about the White House press pool. Yet it's one of the main ways they learn what the president is doing in his daily activities.
The rotating group of journalists who cover those activities, which often are attended only by staff or invited guests and not in public view, is now at the heart of a high-stakes fight over press freedom after President Donald Trump banned reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from accessing the White House, on Friday, Sept. 18.
In response, members of the press pool withheld White House video coverage and delayed the release of photographs, turning a dispute over access into a national debate about who gets to cover the presidency - and how they do it.
The standoff has already led to
a lawsuit challenging Trump's order, prompting an unusual show of solidarity among rival news organizations and new attention to the journalists who serve as the public's eyes and ears around the president.
Here's what the White House press pool does and the new drama surrounding it.
Trump banned three news outlets. Why is the White House press pool involved?
After Trump's ban on the three outlets, the other major television networks that make up the White House television pool — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News — announced they were suspending their pool coverage in solidarity with CNN.
The television pool captures independent video of the president that is not filtered through a government website. It is distributed among the five largest broadcasters in America and shared with the public affairs network C-SPAN.
Outlets with photographers in the White House pool — including Reuters, Getty Images, The New York Times and The Washington Post — also agreed not to publish or distribute any photos taken Sept. 21 until midnight. The New York Times said it would continue withholding pictures of Trump in solidarity with the banned outlets until a judge hears their argument.
White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) President Jacqui Heinrich, a correspondent with Fox News, released a statementcondemning Trump's ban, calling it a violation of the First Amendment. The WHCA is a nine-member board of White House correspondents who are elected by their peers and currently includes reporters from the New York Post, Fox News Radio, Fox News, MS NOW, Getty, CBS, ABC, Bloomberg and Reuters.
"The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future," the statement said. "The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably."
What is the White House press pool?
The White House press pool is the rotating group of journalists who cover the president's activities for the wider press corps.
Hundreds of journalists regularly cover the White House, however, there isn't enough space for all of them to attend every event with the president, such as those in the Oval Office or while traveling on Air Force One. The press pool narrows this larger group to a small number of journalists.
The press pool rotates to give reporters from different print, TV and radio outlets opportunities for covering the president. The on-duty print representative files "pool reports" that document what the president said and did at the event, which are emailed to the larger press corps. USA TODAY is part of the print pool.
When the president is at the White House, the press pool includes about 20 correspondents from wire services, print, TV and radio outlets, along with photojournalists and sound operators, according to the WHCA.
Until 2025, the White House Correspondents' Association traditionally picked which outlets were in the press pool. The Trump administration announced in February 2025 that it would now be selecting which outlets are included in the pool.
When the Trump White House decided to take over deciding who is in the pool, the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters lost their permanent positions of being in every pool rotation.
During his second term, Trump has also welcomed many conservative-leaning commentators and reporters - who haven't historically been part of the White House pool - into the pool to ask him questions in the Oval Office.
What does the TV pool do?
The White House TV pool before CNN was banned had consisted of: ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News and CNN.
The TV pool typically carries video and audio of the president's events, so the suspended coverage impacts visual coverage of the president's schedule.
The dispute's impact was seen on Sept. 21 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Trump's new White House helipad. While livestreamed by the White House, the lack of microphones typically used by the pool caused the president's remarks at the event to be inaudible.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Francesca Chambers and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. Keep up with her on X @melinakh and Instagram @bymelinakhan.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is the White House press pool? How Trump's ban affects coverage
