Donald Trump has floated turning the White House press briefing room into a swimming pool, and even one of his own party's former press secretaries thinks that's a step too far. Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer called the idea a bad idea, even as he agreed reporters should be made to pay rent for their West Wing workspace.
The proposal traces back to reporting from New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, who cited three people familiar with the situation in reporting that Trump had floated removing the press from the White House entirely, according to Mediaite. Trump wants to restore an indoor pool previously installed for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, per that report, reviving a space that has sat covered beneath the briefing room since 1970, when President Richard Nixon had it paved over to accommodate the growing White House press corps.
Trump has already teased the swap publicly. In late September, he posted side-by-side comparison graphics on Truth Social contrasting the existing press room, labeled “Fake News, Before,” with an ornate rendering of a swimming facility labeled “FDR Pool After,” according to Editor and Publisher.
Fleischer's Counterintuitive Pitch: Keep Them Close, But Make Them Pay
Fleischer did not simply defend the press corps. He recommended moving the press into paid space and said the White House is taxpayers' property, not the media's, and that reporters currently pay no rent for their workspace. But he also argued that keeping the press physically close remains in the White House's own interest, saying it makes access easier for the U.S. Secret Service and others, and that evicting reporters outright simply was not worth the effort.
As an alternative to a pool, Fleischer suggested housing the press in the nearby Eisenhower Executive Office Building, an idea with history behind it. Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus publicly floated the same EEOB relocation during the 2016-2017 transition, but Trump abandoned the effort days before his first inauguration following press opposition, according to CBS News.
A Pool Built to Be Restored
A Pool Built to Be Restored The technical case for reviving the pool isn't far-fetched. When Nixon ordered construction of the briefing room over the indoor pool, project architects were explicitly instructed to build the structure without damaging the pool underneath, so that a future president could restore it, per the White House Historical Association. The pool itself dates to 1933, built inside the West Terrace after a public fundraising drive organized by the New York Daily News to support FDR's hydrotherapy treatments for polio. Roosevelt used it regularly for exercise.
The room is known as the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. It also underwent a modernization in 2006 under President George W. Bush, when crews eradicated a longtime rat infestation beneath the floor, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.
White House Won't Rule It Out
Asked directly about the reported eviction plan, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said “all options remain on the table, and we will make an announcement when appropriate,” per CBS News, while also arguing the public is distrustful of the news media. Cheung's response was that all options remained on the table.
The pool proposal lands amid other recent friction between the administration and the press corps. Trump previously removed reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the outlets of pushing fake news about him, a move Hoodline covered when it reported on the credential bans. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against that ban, and the White House subsequently restored the reporters' credentials. Separately, in February 2025 the administration asserted direct executive control over selecting which outlets participate in the presidential press pool, a shift that drew formal protests from the White House Correspondents' Association, according to inkl.
Fleischer's Own History With the Briefing Room
Fleischer took part in a 2010 oral history, according to KPBS. Fleischer served as President George W. Bush's press secretary from 2001 to 2003.
Whether the pool plan goes anywhere may fall to new White House press leadership. Former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt officially left her post on August 27, leaving the press office vacant until conservative commentator Katie Zacharia was tapped for the role, as Hoodline previously reported. Leavitt was reportedly urged by Trump to execute the relocation as her final legacy before departing, according to that same reporting. For now, it remains unresolved whether the incoming press secretary will pursue the physical structural changes or whether the administration will keep the briefing room intact while continuing to exercise selective control over press pool access.
