--- title: Sean Spicer Takes The White House Podium description: The new White House spokesman conducts his first full briefing, noting the Trump Administration has angered journalists without apology. canonical: https://time.com/4643724/donald-trump-first-press-briefing/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-23T19:27:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T12:51:18.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump's First Press Briefing Was a Big Change og:description: A different relationship with the press. og:url: https://time.com/4643724/donald-trump-first-press-briefing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f7ea1460b0298ca/6988b6d75f570f338fb23d61/gettyimages-632497720.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer holds the daily press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House January 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump's First Press Briefing Was a Big Change twitter:description: A different relationship with the press. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f7ea1460b0298ca/6988b6d75f570f338fb23d61/gettyimages-632497720.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's First Press Briefing Was a Big Change > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d283f6ba-19d1-42cf-896e-4d9f684c424a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump’s First Press Briefing Was a Big Change [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump’s First Press Briefing Was a Big Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gJmmEYQH.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2017-01-23. Sean Spicer arrived at his first full press briefing as the Trump Administration’s top spokesman_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:51 PM UTCPublished: Jan 23, 2017 7:27 PM UTC Sean Spicer arrived at his first full press briefing as the Trump Administration’s top spokesman  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:51 PM UTCPublished: Jan 23, 2017 7:27 PM UTC Sean Spicer arrived at his first full press briefing as the Trump Administration’s top spokesman looking to defuse tensions still raw from his sharp-tongued rebuke of journalists over the weekend. Spicer strode to the storied podium in the White House Briefing Room on Monday afternoon and began with a joke about his predecessor enjoying huge popularity among the press corps. “His title is secure,” Spicer said of Josh Earnest. It was a signal that Spicer recognized the damage the Administration has fostered during the Trump team’s first days in office—and perhaps didn’t care. Trump on Saturday began a fight with reporters whom he said underestimated his [crowd sizes](http://time.com/4642469/trump-inauguration-crowd-size/), and Spicer called journalists to the White House for a six-minute statement echoing that. A day later, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway defended Spicer, saying he was putting forward “[alternative facts](http://time.com/4642689/kellyanne-conway-sean-spicer-donald-trump-alternative-facts/).” Taken together, it was an unusual—but not unsurprising—start to the President’s first term. Trump rode to power on an us-versus-them jet fuel that shows no signs of burning out now that the New York billionaire has arrived at his destination. If the first days of Donald Trump’s White House are any indication, the journalists tasked with chronicling perhaps the least orthodox President in the modern era are in for at least four years of mayhem. Facts are fungible, antagonism is the M.O., and almost anything can be branded “fake news.” Spicer recognized he was in new territory but didn’t blink. From the podium, Spicer announced that the White House was now reserved four seats for journalists who could Skype into the briefings—[an idea floated earlier this month by NBC’s Chuck Todd](https://twitter.com/mlcalderone/status/822102167058202624). But there were no details if any of the existing news organizations who have reserved seats in the Briefing Room might lose their real estate as a result. And the first question of the briefing went to Daniel Halper of the New York _Post_, author of the [unflattering](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062311239/) _Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine._ The second question went to Jennifer Wishon for CBN News, a Christian network, who asked about Trump’s executive order on abortion from earlier in the day. And the third went to Janet Rodriquez of Univision. All were an affront to the vaunted First Row of the briefing room, made up of the five major broadcast networks and The Associated Press and Reuters. None of this should have been surprising, given there were talks during Trump’s transition to power that the press might be entirely booted from their office space at the White House. While that didn’t come to pass, the press briefing was a sign that change has come. ## Transcript I know that Josh Earnest voted the most popular Press Secretary by the press corps. So, after checking my Twitter feed, I shot Josh an email last night letting him know that he can rest easy that his title is secure for at least the next few days. I think that if there's a way that we can combat ISIS with any country whether it's Russia or anyone else And we had shared national interest in that, sure we'll take it. I believe that we have to be honest with the American people. I think sometimes we can disagree with the facts. There are certain things that we may not fully understand when we come out. But our intention is never to lie to you. There are times when we believe something to be true, or we get something from an agency. Are we acting in haste because the information available wasn't complete, but our desire to communicate with the American people and make sure that you have the most complete story at the time. And so we do it. I think that it's, as I mentioned the other day, it is a two way street. There are many mistakes that the media makes all the time. They misreport something, they don't report something, they get a fact wrong. I don't think that's always [ INAUDIBLE ], you know? To turn around and say, okay. You were intentionally lying. I think we all go try to do our best job. And do it with a degree of integrity in our respective industries. And do you stand by your statement that that was the most watched inaugural address in [ UNKNOWN ]? Sure, it was the most watched inaugural. When you look at. Look. You look at just the one network alone at 16. 9 million people online. Another couple of the networks there was tens of millions of people that watched that online. Nevermind the audience that was here. 31 million people watched it on television. Combine that with the tens of millions of people that watched it online on a device. It's unquestionable. 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