President-elect Donald Trump is looking at perhaps “opening up” the White House Press Briefing Room to include podcaster Joe Rogan and other “independent journalists,” according to his son, Donald Jr.
The younger Trump made the comments on his “Triggered” show on Rumble while talking to The Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles on Monday.
Don Jr. said he was “going to break some news” after “literally” just talking to his dad about his plans for the press during his second administration. The elder Trump has apparently been thinking about removing a few mainstream media outlets from the briefing room to make room for “Rogan and guys like you.”
“I’d love to see Rogan in the White House press briefing, or even rotate guys out,” Don Jr. said. He added that this could mean legacy outlets like The New York Times are left without a chair to sit on.
“We had the conversation about opening up the press room to a lot of these independent journalists,” Don Jr. said. “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?”
Right now, there are 49 seats in the White House Press Briefing Room. The White House Correspondents’ Association has been assigning those seats since Ronald Reagan was in office, while The White House Press Office issues the passes to journos covering the president.
President-elect Trump, of course, has had a combative relationship with the mainstream media during his time in politics. He’s often hit the NYT and Washington Post, among other outlets, with his go-to “fake news” barb, and he’s had some notable on-camera arguments with reporters like CNN’s Jim Acosta.
He also recently made non-mainstream outlets a key part of his 2024 run for the presidency. Trump appeared on a number of podcasts, including Rogan’s, in the weeks leading up to Election Day. His appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” pulled in more than 7 million views in its first seven hours and has since been watched 51 million times on YouTube since it was posted in late October.
Among the people and topics mentioned on the Trump-Rogan podcast: Joe Biden, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, China, Israel, Russia, Iran, the UFC, The White House, depression, primetime television, the media, Baron Trump, Melania Trump, Reagan, oil, Adolf Hitler, CNN, Tim Walz, the 2020 election, “The View,” David Muir, tariffs, policing, polling and Elon Musk.
Rogan ultimately endorsed Trump for president a day before the election.
