White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a chart showing figures of emergency services for undocumented aliens during a press briefing at the Brady Press Briefing Room, in the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
When Jen Psaki, now an MSNBC host, joined the Biden Administration as White House press secretary in January 2021, she made it clear that she welcomed tough questions from conservatives. Psaki was happy to debate right-wing Fox News reporter Peter Doocy during White House press conferences, for example, but she never discouraged him from attending.
In contrast, reporters who offend the second Trump Administration risk being excluded from press conferences. And in some cases, according to The Guardian's David Smith, they are being replaced by far-right MAGA media pundits.
Smith, in an article published on October 4, notes how obsequious some of these pundits are when asking Trump questions. For example, Brian Glenn of Real America's Voice told Trump, "I’ve often said: Trump could cure cancer and people would still criticize him."
"It was not the first time that Glenn, who works for the Real America's Voice platform and is the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman, has played the role of Trump sidekick — a useful foil guaranteed to lighten the atmosphere," Smith explains. "It was also a small but telling example of how the White House press corps has changed between Trump's first and second terms."
Smith continues, "Seasoned reporters from mainstream media outlets are still asking tough questions. But in the Oval Office, on Air Force One or in the press briefing room, there is no way to avoid the new contingent of MAGA (Make America Great Again) reporters, influencers and podcasters lobbing toothless queries or fawning comments at their favorite president."
Tara Setmayer, a Never Trump conservative and former GOP communications director, warns that when President Donald Trump surrounds himself with obsequious MAGA media figures at White House press conferences, it is right out of the "authoritarian" playbook.
Setmayer told The Guardian, "They're hand-picked to protect him, and once again, it's another emulation of authoritarian leaders around the world who suppress the free press in order to avoid accountability. (Trump) surrounds himself with sycophants who ask softball questions that allow him to drone on about nonsense and propaganda and disinformation."
Media Matters' Matt Gertz is also sounding the alarm about the abundance of Trump sycophants who are praising him during press conferences.
Gertz told The Guardian, "I don't want to be too glowing about the performance of the White House press corps and the way that they interacted with administrations in years past. But I think there was an understanding of sorts that reporters were on one side and the government was on the other — and the purpose of the reporters was to try to get information from the government and bring it back to their audience through tough questioning. What you have now is effectively an infiltration of the press corps by people who are more interested in helping the (Trump) Administration than they are in trying to get information out of it."
Read David Smith's full article for The Guardian at this link.