HuffPost slammed the White House for reportedly pulling a press pool spot amid turmoil surrounding new policy on how the presidential press pool operates.
The outlet reported Tuesday night that one of its reporters was ousted from the pool by the White House for the following day. On Wednesday, HuffPost’s editor-in-chief, Whitney Snyder, decried the reported action, calling it “a extraordinary display of weakness.”
“Readers — last night, the Trump administration kicked out HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Date from the press pool that covers the president,” Snyder said in the piece.
“This came two weeks after Date assertively asked President Donald Trump questions that he apparently did not want to answer — eliciting a belligerent, defensive response from the president,” he continued.
The outlet also went after the White House on its main webpage, which featured a photo of President Trump alongside a symbol that appeared like a sticker on the photo that read “100% CHICKEN.”
On Tuesday, the White House said it would take control over what outlets are let into the presidential press pool. The White House Correspondents’ Association has historically overseen the operations of the pool.
“It’s beyond time the White House press pool reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
A White House official told The Hill on Wednesday that the HuffPost could make a return to the pool, stating “it’s incorrect to say people are being pushed out” and that the Trump administration is only changing the way the pool is organized.
Snyder’s comments come at a particularly tense time between the Trump administration and media outlets, including the president’s recent banning of the Associated Press from the Oval Office over the international wire’s refusal to add “Gulf of America” to its stylebook.
“Blocking HuffPost — and The Associated Press — is a spineless act that breaks with decades of precedent,” he wrote. “Since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time in office, the White House pool has provided Americans with transparent, independent reporting on the president.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for further comment.
