President-elect Donald Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer told Fox News that the incoming administration might move press briefings out of the crowded West Wing press room and into a larger space to accommodate more outlets not part of the mainstream media elite.
Bloggers and smaller outlets having access to the president “should be seen as a welcome change,” Spicer said, adding “This is about greater accessibility, more people in the process.”
Though no official decision has been made, Trump’s team, including Vice President-elect Mike Pence, said there is “heavy demand from media organizations,” reports Bloomberg.
Pence said, “There’s such a tremendous amount of interest in this incoming administration that they’re giving some consideration to finding a larger venue on the 18 acres in the White House complex, to accommodate that extraordinary interest.”
“The interest of the team is to make sure that we accommodate the broadest number of people who are interested and media from around the country and around the world,” he added.
The White House chief of staff for Trump, Reince Priebus, said the Executive Office Building “can fit four times the amount of people” above the 49-person capacity in the current press room.
“I know that some of the folks in the press are uptight about this, and I understand,” Priebus said.
There have been some in the media who feel Trump is trying to move the press corps out of the main building of the White House, according to Bloomberg, because of his personal feelings toward the media elite.
However, Priebus said after the “500 or 600” people that attended Trump’s recent press conference in New York, “We started thinking, man alive, if we have more people involved instead of less people involved, wouldn’t that be a good thing.”
The Executive Office Building houses the office of the vice president and the offices for the president’s support staff. Though it is across the street from the main residence, it is considered a part of the White House, according to Priebus.



