Donald Trump has paved over the grass adjacent to the White House Rose Garden, and he plans to construct a huge ballroom on the East Wing. But on Monday, he nixed another idea for renovation: expanding the quarters for the White House press corps.
Brian Glenn, the correspondent for the Trump-supporting Real America’s Voice, asked Trump at Monday’s press conference, “You’re building a big beautiful ballroom. Could we build a big beautiful briefing room?”
Trump responded, “I don’t want to do that.” He told the reporters gathered, “I don’t want you to be comfortable.” His comment elicited a lot of laughs in the crowd, gathered in the existing and veery tight briefing room, which has 49 seats for reporters and can accommodate perhaps two dozen more standing.
The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, its official name, is very cramped, but many reporters are fine with the discomfort as a tradeoff for its proximity. Built atop the White House swimming pool during Richard Nixon’s presidency, the quarters are part of the West Wing, with the Oval Office just up the stairs and down the hall.
Any option to move to larger spaces would likely mean moving away from the choice spot, perhaps over to the Old Executive Office Building, which is still part of the White House complex but across the street. That idea was floated before Trump took office in his first term but never implemented, with the White House Correspondents’ Association opposing the idea of such a move.
Before he took office this term, there was some concern that Trump could boot the press corps from the grounds altogether.
Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation game plan for Trump’s second term, actually called into question having the press corps at its current location, citing space constraints. At least publicly, Trump has not proposed any such action, and at his press conference on Monday, he took special note of the number of reporters crammed in the room. “I have never seen this room so packed,” Trump said. “In fact, I am sure it is a violation of every fire code ever.”
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