Trump Flip-Flops, Throws Support Behind Pentagon Press Policy — And Threatens to Kick Media Out of White House
President Donald Trump threw his support behind Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s controversial new Pentagon press policy on Tuesday, even going so far as to intimate he could throw the media out of the White House.
Hegseth is demanding reporters sign a new agreement imposing restrictions on those covering the Pentagon. Trump expressed skepticism when asked about the restrictions last month, but he changed his tune on Tuesday.
After being asked if he would “consider removing new restrictions on the press that report at the Pentagon?” and if he had spoken to Hegseth, who was sitting a few seats down from him during a Q&A, Trump replied, “I have, yeah. Well, he’s finding, I mean, I think I can speak for him, I’ll let him speak for himself, but I think he finds the press to be very disruptive in terms of world peace and maybe security for our nation. Press is very dishonest, not you, but the press is very dishonest.”
“Do you have something to say?” Trump asked, turning to Hegseth.
“I appreciate the question because it was interesting to watch, we had a chance to go along on the historic trip of Middle East peace, which our generation of veterans never dreamed would be possible. So you would think that the Pentagon press corps of all press corps would be front and center across the board on wanting to give credit to the president for forging this kind of peace and instead what they want to talk about is a policy about them. Which simply says maybe the policy should look like the White House, or other military installations where you have to wear a badge that identifies that you’re press, or you can’t just roam anywhere you want,” argued Hegseth.
“It used to be, Mr. President, the press could go anywhere, pretty much anywhere in the Pentagon. The most classified area in the world or also that if they sign on to the credentialing, they’re not going to try to get soldiers to break the law by giving them classified information. So it’s common sense stuff, Mr. President. We’re trying to make sure national security is respected and we’re proud of the policy,” he added.
That’s when Trump suggested things could get a whole lot worse for the White House press corps.
The president jumped back in to say:
You know, we have an option here to, as you know, the press years ago moved into the White House. It used to be across the street. We could move them. You’re lucky I’m president, because we could move then very easily across the street. They used to have-, they would have more room. We have a beautiful, nice space. You could sit all by yourselves and have fun. Instead, you walk around the White House talking to anybody that can breathe. And, you know, but I find that when it comes to war, and now our great Department of War, we have some great people over there.
I think it’s sort of-, it bothers me to have soldiers and even, you know, high-ranking generals walking around with you guys on their sleeve asking them, because they can make a mistake and a mistake can be tragic. They can do it innocently, too. They can, you know, and they’re not press people. They don’t really deal with the press, so they’re not really necessarily good at it, although I think it’s mostly instinctual one way or the other. You’re either good at things or you’re not. But I could see you being bothered by that. So you have them in an area and you treat them fairly, but they’re not allowed to go into somebody’s office and sit with them for 10 hours.
Most major news organizations — including Fox News and Newsmax — have strenuously objected to the new policy, which requires reporters neither ask for nor obtain information from military members that is not officially approved by the Department of Defense.
Watch above via Fox News.
