The White House press pool provides daily coverage of the president's activities, rotating among major networks — ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News — to feed video to other outlets. Established during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, the pool has chronicled historic events including the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The White House Correspondents' Association traditionally managed pool rotations, which include TV, print, radio, wire services like The Associated Press, Reuters, and Bloomberg, and still photographers.

In February 2025, President Donald Trump's White House took control of pool assignments, adding secondary TV and print reporters, eliminating the wire slot, and creating a "new media" seat for non-traditional outlets. The television pool suspended coverage after Trump banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, raising concerns about public access to information.

"The press pool serves as the public's eyes and ears inside the White House," said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. "[T]he public is entitled to hear how the president handles difficult questions... All of that becomes far more difficult, if not impossible, without a functioning press pool."