Did Biden revoke more than 400 press passes? How changes compare to Trump’s media ban

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            <span class="fact_check_info_title">What's True</span>
            <p class="fact_check_info_description">During 2023, the Biden administration updated the criteria required to secure a primary, all-access White House press credential known as a "hard pass." Following the implementation of these stricter criteria, active hard passes fell from 1,417 to 975, largely because numerous reporters opted not to renew them.</p>
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            <span class="fact_check_info_title">What's False</span>
            <p class="fact_check_info_description">These updates did not eliminate or substitute reporters within the "press pool"—a compact, rotating cohort of journalists traditionally chosen by the White House Correspondents' Association to maintain constant proximity and travel alongside the president. Conversely, the Trump administration declared in 2025 that the White House would take direct control of selecting that specific group.</p>
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            <span class="fact_check_info_title">What's Undetermined</span>
            <p class="fact_check_info_description">The exact quantity of journalists who became ineligible for hard passes solely as a result of the Biden administration's revised criteria remains uncertain.</p>
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<p>On September 18, 2026, President Donald Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-cnn-msnow-politico-media-bans-bb675679fb10738a51bef90bde6c525a">announced</a> a ban barring reporters representing CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from entering the White House. According to The Associated Press, journalists from all three news organizations <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-ban-ms-now-media-d160e253453229600ce54f8e91351523">had their white house credentials rescinded</a> the following day. Dismissing the publications as creators of "<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117308890736529824">fake news</a>," the president enacted this unprecedented measure, which is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-ban-ms-now-media-cnn-politico-72f9acf68244ca70e9078d9d3661c722">currently facing legal challenges</a> centered on First Amendment protections.</p>
<p>This is not the initial instance of Trump drawing criticism for attempting to influence media coverage of his administration.</p>
<p>As a point of comparison, then-White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5308234/white-house-says-its-changing-the-pool-of-journalists-who-travel-with-the-president">reported</a> on February 25, 2025, that the White House press pool—the small, rotating assembly of reporters accompanying the president continuously—would no longer be appointed by the independent White House Correspondents' Association. That association was originally <a href="https://whca.press/about/history/">established expressly to stop the executive branch from limiting media access</a>.</p>
<p>At present, officials within the Trump administration choose the members of this press pool themselves.</p>
<p>Amid the 2026 controversy, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/professornez/posts/pfbid0212PKJ4kvu7LEje2VUbDdPjNw1jBBFta57hdoXwZAsgsSnGdMidZ7JkuzM3HbnuCnl">social</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheHoosierPerspective/posts/pfbid0NwoyNkHJQhCpsKASkkbLakKYJBSsUB5i4zWvuGmaX5xYwfXJfRR9sD3DQbGL1nR4l">media platforms</a> saw a surge of posts attempting to equate Trump's directives with the actions of his predecessor, Joe Biden. Having <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-biden-white-house-press-pool/">examined this assertion in February 2025</a>, we are updating our coverage to reflect current events. The rumor originally stemmed from a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/flashback-biden-also-changed-white-house-press-pool-cutting-off-more-than-440-reporters-credentials">Fox News report</a> headlined, "FLASHBACK: Biden also changed White House press pool, cutting off more than 440 reporters' credentials."</p>
<p>By September 2026, the claim was actively amplified by the conservative <a href="https://perma.cc/R2GG-Q252">One America News Network</a>, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/09/white-house-access-is-a-privilege-not-a-right/">the White House communication channels</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/09/white-house-access-is-a-privilege-not-a-right/">In an official statement</a> issued on September 21, the administration framed entering the White House as a "privilege, not a right," citing past instances where the administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden allegedly sought to restrict media entry.</p>
<p>(Our team <a href="https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/obama-block-fox-news-reporters/">previously investigated</a> the claims directed at the Obama administration.)</p>
<p>However, the two situations are fundamentally distinct and cannot be equated.</p>
<p>The adjustments made by the Biden administration simply raised the standards required to secure a specific media credential. According to Jacqui Heinrich, a White House correspondent for Fox News who also serves as the <a href="https://whca.press/officer/jacqui-heinrich/">president of the WHCA</a>, executive administrations have consistently held authority over press credentialing procedures.</p>
<p>In contrast, the Trump administration took the unprecedented step of seizing direct oversight over the reporters chosen for the traveling "press pool"—something <a href="https://whca.press/about/history/">never done by any previous presidential administration</a>—and subsequently moved to officially bar specific news organizations from the White House entirely.</p>

<h2>What the Biden administration did</h2>
<p>Back in 2023, the Biden administration updated the criteria for the "hard pass," an annual credential that grants White House correspondents the ability to enter and exit the complex freely during operational hours, as detailed by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/05/09/white-house-press-rules-simon-ateba/">The Washington Post</a>. The updated prerequisites implemented under Biden included:</p>
<ul>
    <li>Official employment with a recognized news organization.</li>
    <li>Residency within the greater Washington, D.C., region.</li>
    <li>Proof of working at the White House at least once during the previous six months.</li>
    <li>Possession of a press credential for either the Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate, or the House of Representatives.</li>
</ul>
<p>Importantly, single-day press passes remained entirely accessible to all reporters, <a href="https://www.state.gov/information-for-journalists">including those who failed to meet the aforementioned criteria</a>.</p>
<p>Data from <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2023/08/02/simons-no-longer-got-a-hard-pass-00109526">Politico</a> indicated that active hard passes declined from 1,417 down to 975 following the policy shift, primarily because numerous journalists chose not to submit renewal paperwork. Despite the tougher standards, only a single application was formally rejected. A White House representative noted prior to the transition that <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2023/08/02/simons-no-longer-got-a-hard-pass-00109526">"roughly 40 percent of hard pass holders had not accessed the White House complex in the prior 90 days."</a></p>
<p>Consequently, characterizing the Biden administration as having "cut off" credentials for upwards of 440 journalists is misleading. Eligible reporters were given the opportunity to renew their passes, but some voluntarily chose to skip the process. It remains undetermined how many individuals opted against renewal because they would have failed the updated guidelines (though, crucially, those individuals retained the option to cover events using day passes).</p>

<h2>What the Trump administration did</h2>
<p>In February 2025, the Trump administration opted to place government officials in direct control of designating the rotating group of reporters who travel alongside the president—the individuals tasked with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/trump-white-house-press-policy.html">conveying the president's schedule and actions to the broader public</a>.</p>
<p>Historically organized by the WHCA, this press pool has accompanied chief executives since the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s, according to <a href="https://whca.press/covering-the-white-house/">the association's platform</a>.</p>
<p>Because members of the general public might confuse the phrase "press pool" with the overall body of reporters covering the White House, rather than the small traveling squad, it is misleading to equate altering pass eligibility requirements with granting the executive branch total authority over who constitutes the press pool.</p>
<p>The White House announcement regarding its control over the press pool followed closely on the heels of an incident where the administration <a href="https://whca.press/2025/02/13/whca-on-attempted-government-censorship-of-a-free-press/">prohibited</a> <a href="https://whca.press/2025/02/11/statement-on-white-house-excluding-ap-from-news-coverage/">The Associated Press</a> from the grounds because the outlet <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-ap-journalism-first-amendment-8a83d8b506053249598e807f8e91e1ae">refused demands</a> to substitute the geographic term "Gulf of Mexico" with "Gulf of America." The AP subsequently <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5342369/ap-white-house-court-ruling-oval-office-gulf-of-mexico-america">filed a lawsuit to regain entry</a>, resulting in a judicial ruling <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2025cv00532/277682/46/">in favor of the news agency</a> in April 2025.</p>
<p>Subsequently, in September 2026, Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-ban-ms-now-media-d160e253453229600ce54f8e91351523">revoked the physical press credentials</a>—or hard passes—belonging to journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico.</p>
<p>Tensions between presidential administrations and the media are certainly not new. Richard Nixon is <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/complicated-history-between-press-and-presidency-180959406/">frequently cited as having ordered a ban against The Washington Post</a> in the wake of the Watergate scandal, a dynamic often viewed as a precursor to Trump's 2026 decisions.</p>
<p>However, Nixon's team never actually confiscated press credentials from Post reporters, noted a 2016 <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-revokes-washington-post-s-press-credentials-n591586">NBC News</a> report. George Condon, a veteran White House journalist and past president of the WHCA, told NBC News he could identify no prior historical instance of an administration stripping an outlet of its press credentials outright. According to legendary Watergate investigator Bob Woodward, the Post was simply barred from attending social functions hosted at the White House.</p>