--- title: President Trump Threatens to Cancel Press Briefings description: President Trump defended his spokespersons' conflicting accounts of James Comey's firing, threatening to cancel all future press briefings. canonical: https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T12:38:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:02:13.162Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Threatens to Cancel White House Press Briefings og:description: President Trump defended his spokespersons' conflicting accounts of James Comey's firing, threatening to cancel all future press briefings. og:url: https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659f348907b67271/6988ccfb86f68e61966e4a74/donald-trump-comey-poll-most-americans-disapprove.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: donald trump comey poll most americans disapprove og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Threatens to Cancel White House Press Briefings twitter:description: President Trump defended his spokespersons' conflicting accounts of James Comey's firing, threatening to cancel all future press briefings. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659f348907b67271/6988ccfb86f68e61966e4a74/donald-trump-comey-poll-most-americans-disapprove.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Threatens to Cancel White House Press Briefings > 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=3612b83d-7d75-4320-a8a7-d1b74c8420ae&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: White House: President Trump Had Been Considering Firing James Comey Since Election Day [Watch (HLS stream): White House: President Trump Had Been Considering Firing James Comey Since Election Day](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ktG2xfo5.m3u8) (0:20)  _Published 2017-05-10. The White House said Wednesday that President Donald Trump had been considering FBI Director James Comey's termination since the day he was elected, but wanted to give him a chance in the role first_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 12, 2017 12:38 PM UTC The White House said Wednesday that President Donald Trump had been considering FBI Director James Comey's termination since the day he was elected, but wanted to give him a chance in the role first  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 12, 2017 12:38 PM UTC [President Trump](http://time.com/donald-trump-after-hours/) took to Twitter Friday morning to defend his spokespersons’ conflicting accounts of [James Comey’s firing](http://time.com/4775430/the-comey-misfire/) — blaming the “fake media” for the confusion and then threatening to cancel all future press briefings. “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” the president tweeted. “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future “press briefings” and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863000553265270786) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863002719400976384) His reaction comes after several days of press secretary Sean Spicer, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump himself all offering [different accounts](http://time.com/4776388/james-comey-fired-trump-interview/) of both the reasoning and process of Trump firing the FBI director earlier this week. Trump also slammed the “fake media” Friday morning and once again denied any collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia, amid speculation that he fired Comey for reasons related to the FBI’s investigation into the matter. “Again, the story that there was collusion between the Russians & Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election,” he tweeted. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/862998775731818496) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/862999243560288256) Trump also went on the attack against Comey, appearing to contradict [recent reports ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/trump-comey-firing.html)that Trump had asked the FBI head to pledge his loyalty during a private dinner in January. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473) ## Transcript [00:00] I did speak directly to the president and heard directly [00:03] from him, that he again had been considering letting [00:08] director Comey go, pretty much since the day he took [00:10] office. But that there was no request [00:15] by him to have on review at the department of justice. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/"},"headline":"President Trump Threatens to Cancel White House Press Briefings","datePublished":"2017-05-12T12:38:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:02:13.162Z","description":"After conflicting accounts of James Comey's firing","url":"https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659f348907b67271/6988ccfb86f68e61966e4a74/donald-trump-comey-poll-most-americans-disapprove.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659f348907b67271/6988ccfb86f68e61966e4a74/donald-trump-comey-poll-most-americans-disapprove.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald trump comey poll most americans disapprove","caption":"donald trump comey poll most americans disapprove","creditText":"The Washington Post—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/","name":"President Trump Threatens to Cancel White House Press Briefings"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"White House: President Trump Had Been Considering Firing James Comey Since Election Day","description":"The White House said Wednesday that President Donald Trump had been considering FBI Director James Comey's termination since the day he was elected, but wanted to give him a chance in the role first","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ktG2xfo5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-10T20:18:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ktG2xfo5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/","duration":"PT20S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```