The days of mainstream media monopolizing White House access are officially over.
The Trump administration released its press pool rotation for January 12-19, 2026, and patriots should take note: conservative and alternative media outlets are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the legacy networks that spent years smearing the America First movement.
A New Media Landscape
Scan the list and you'll see names that would have been blacklisted under the Biden regime: Daily Wire, Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, One America News (OAN), Real America's Voice (RAV), Newsmax, Daily Caller, and the Washington Examiner. These outlets—the ones that actually told the truth while CNN and the New York Times peddled Russia hoaxes and Hunter Biden coverups—now have the same credentials as the networks that called Trump supporters "deplorables" and "insurrectionists."
This isn't just symbolism. This is the democratization of information that the First Amendment always promised but the establishment media cartel tried to prevent.
The Legacy Media Still Has a Seat—But Not the Only Seat
Make no mistake: ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post are still in the rotation. The Trump administration isn't banning reporters or revoking credentials like the censorship-happy left would do. That's the difference between America First governance and authoritarian progressivism.
But now they have to share space with journalists who actually ask tough questions and report facts the American people deserve to hear.
Remember the Biden Years
Under the disastrous Biden administration, friendly corporate media lapdogs lobbed softball questions while independent journalists were frozen out, de-platformed, and labeled "misinformation." Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre could barely string together a coherent sentence, but CNN called it "historic."
Now, under Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the briefing room actually functions—and every American, regardless of which outlet they trust, gets represented.
This is what transparency looks like, folks. This is what happens when a President isn't afraid of a free press.
The question is: will the legacy media finally start doing their jobs now that they have real competition in the room?