President Donald Trump’s White House has received more than 10,000 applications for its “new media” seat, according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday.
The new media seat — which was announced earlier this week at Leavitt’s first press briefing — aims to give independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators a chance to ask questions alongside reporters from legacy media outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post.
On Friday, the new media seat was being occupied by the co-hosts of the “Ruthless” podcast. John Ashbrook, one of the show’s co-hosts, was even called on by Leavitt to ask the first question of the day.
“You know, Karoline, in your first briefing, the media went after this administration reporting illegal immigrants they claim were not criminal,” Ashbrook said. “Question is, do you think they’re out of touch with Americans demanding action on our border crisis?”
Leavitt responded that the mainstream media is “certainly is out of touch” with regards to illegal immigration. She then pointed to a recent poll from the NYT — “which, of course, is a legacy media outlet” — that showed 87% of Americans support deporting violent illegal immigrants.
Earlier in the week, she said the new Trump administration would restore more than 400 press passes that were revoked during Joe Biden’s time in office. Leavitt said this, coupled with the new media seat and Trump’s recent conversations with reporters, shows he is the “most transparent” president in history.
Among those who have applied for new media seat approval this week include James O’Keefe, the Project Veritas founder who is now running O’Keefe Media Group; and Seth Dillon, the CEO of The Babylon Bee, the right-leaning satirical site.
At 27 years old, Leavitt took the designation of being the youngest White House press secretary from Ronald Ziegler, who was 29 when he served for Richard Nixon, beginning in 1969. The position was introduced during Herbert Hoover’s administration in 1929.
Looking ahead, Leavitt joked the White House may need to expand the press room to accommodate its new media members.
Check TheWrap next week for a feature story on some of the new media voices who are now in the White House press briefing room — including Natalie Winters, who co-hosts “Steve Bannon’s War Room” on Rumble.
