Donald Trump Hints at Tearing Down White House Briefing Room to Replace With Pool After Controversial Media Ban
Donald Trump has teased plans to replace the White House press briefing room with a swimming pool.
Sept. 28 2026, Published 7:45 p.m. ET
Donald Trump has teased he’s considering replacing the White House press briefing room with a swimming pool amid his feud with the media, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The president, 80, shared a mock-up of the makeover in a late-night Truth Social post, showing side-by-side images of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room alongside former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's historic swimming pool.
Trump's Fresh Swipe at Media
Trump nicknamed the press briefing room 'Fake News.'
The existing room was branded "Fake News, Before," while the proposed replacement was labeled "FDR Pool After." The post comes a week after Trump l moved to bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from access to the White House press corps.
The three organizations sued, arguing the restrictions violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights. A federal judge eventually restored their access.
Roosevelt's indoor swimming pool was constructed in the West Terrace in 1933 after his polio diagnosis, using swimming as a form of exercise.
Richard Nixon Paved Over Pool
Former president Richard Nixon covered the historic pool in 1970.
Former Presidents Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson also regularly used it. However, ex-President Richard Nixon had flooring installed over the pool in 1970 to create space for the expanding White House press corps.
The pool itself was preserved beneath the floor so that it could potentially be restored in the future.
Radar recently told how Trump’s media ban is unlikely to have taken place had Karoline Leavitt remained as press secretary.
MS NOW reported that the press secretary's job has sat empty for nearly a month since Leavitt left in August.
Karoline Leavitt May Have 'Talked Down' Trump
Karoline Leavitt's presence may have prevented media ban, claim aides.
Two aides familiar with internal White House dynamics told the network Leavitt could have talked Trump down from banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House.
"The ban is one of those moments where you've got to ask who's around the president right now and how did something like this get sent out, catching some of his own top staffers by surprise," one said.
However, a White House spokesperson hit back at the claims, saying: "Nobody close to the president was surprised at his action to hold the fake news accountable. No president is required to host a hostile operation on the grounds. Access has always been a privilege – and President Trump is applying that rule."
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Trump heaped praise on Leavitt when she stepped down.
The White House press office is less closely managed around Trump than it was when Leavitt ran it, and he liked her loyalty and her willingness to fight with reporters.
Leavitt announced in mid-August that she was leaving at the end of the month to spend more time with her two young children. She had taken maternity leave in the spring after the birth of her second child and returned in mid-July.
Trump praised her as one of the best press secretaries in the office's history and said she would remain an outside adviser.
Communications Director Steven Cheung has moved into her desk, but the White House press secretary role has not been filled yet.
