Trump Rules Out Press Room Pool, Says He May Move the Press Instead

President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will not tear out the White House press briefing room to bring back the swimming pool buried beneath it, but he left the door open to moving reporters somewhere else.

“There is a Fake News report out there that I am going to remove the White House Press Room and bring back the old Swimming Pool, which lies directly underneath,” Trump wrote Saturday morning on Truth Social, according to Reuters as published by The Economic Times. “Although I may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location, the old swimming pool will never be brought back,” he continued, adding, “I NEVER even thought to do such a stupid thing!”

🚨 NOW: President Trump rules out turning the White House press briefing room into a SWIMMING POOL — but says he still might relocate the fake news to a “less obnoxious location” 😂

“There is a Fake News report out there that I am going to remove the White House Press Room and… pic.twitter.com/QvJHE3Iakx

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 24, 2026

The post did not name the report Trump was responding to, and it did not say where the press corps might be sent.

What the earlier reporting said

The denial follows days of coverage of the idea. TheWrap reported that The New York Times, in a story by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, said Trump had talked about moving the press corps out of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room during one of his final meetings with then-Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. According to TheWrap’s account of the Times report, Trump had also told aides he hoped to restore the indoor pool and possibly relocate reporters to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door.

At the time, the White House did not shoot the story down. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Times that “all options remain on the table, and we will make an announcement when appropriate,” TheWrap reported. Cheung also said in that statement that “America is rightly distrustful of the fake news media because they fabricate stories based off lies and sources who are not even privy to any type of information.”

Leavitt herself weighed in Friday night. Appearing on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” the former press secretary said she had seen the reports and that the space “was a swimming pool at one time,” according to TheWrap. “I don’t know if he’ll do it, but he’s been flirting with” the idea, Leavitt said, TheWrap reported.

TheWrap also noted that The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Trump had repeatedly weighed moving the press corps out of the White House, while a senior official told the paper there were no plans to do so. In September, Trump posted a side-by-side image on Truth Social of the briefing room and an indoor pool captioned “Fake News Before, FDR Pool After,” according to TheWrap.

A room with a history

The briefing room sits on top of the pool President Franklin D. Roosevelt had built in the West Wing in 1933 for therapy related to his polio, according to published accounts of the story. President Richard Nixon had the pool covered in 1970 to make room for a growing White House press corps, and the empty pool remains under the floor. Leavitt said on Maher’s show that visitors who go down the stairs beneath the briefing room can still see the old tile, TheWrap reported.

Saturday’s post settles one question, the pool, while leaving the bigger one open. Trump’s own words suggest the press corps could still be on the move, and the White House has not announced any plan or timeline for a relocation. For the reporters who work out of that cramped room every day, the “less obnoxious location” line is the part to watch.

Sources

• Donald Trump, Truth Social post, Oct. 24, 2026, as reported by Reuters via The Economic Times
• TheWrap: White House Won’t Deny Trump Is Eyeing Press Room for Indoor Pool
• TheWrap: Karoline Leavitt Confirms Trump Is ‘Flirting’ With Briefing Room-Into-Pool Plan

Reporting by Daily Beltway.