--- title: Donald Trump: President Suggests Ending Press Briefings description: President Donald Trump is sticking to his comments that it may be a good idea to end press briefings canonical: https://time.com/4777982/donald-trump-end-press-briefings/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T21:02:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:54:31.681Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Doubles Down on Idea of Ending White House Press Briefings og:description: "I think it's a good idea." og:url: https://time.com/4777982/donald-trump-end-press-briefings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc0caaf7dfb114d/6988cd298fd2ee22e735708a/gettyimages-682393170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: donald-trump-end=press-briefings og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Doubles Down on Idea of Ending White House Press Briefings twitter:description: "I think it's a good idea." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc0caaf7dfb114d/6988cd298fd2ee22e735708a/gettyimages-682393170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Doubles Down on Idea of Ending White House Press Briefings > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a25d3bf1-2277-4c4d-910a-f6235c52b4cf&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra May 12, 2017 9:02 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump hosts an event for military mothers on National Military Spouse Appreciation Day with is wife, first lady Melania Trump, in the East Room of the White Hosue May 12, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump hosts an event for military mothers on National Military Spouse Appreciation Day with is wife, first lady Melania Trump, in the East Room of the White Hosue May 12, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photograph by Chip Somodevilla—Getty by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra May 12, 2017 9:02 PM UTC President Trump is sticking to his comments that it may be a good idea [to end daily White House press briefings.](http://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/) “Unless I have them every two weeks and do it myself, we won’t have them,” Trump said [in an interview with Fox.](http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/05/12/judge-jeanine-pirro-interview-president-trump) “I think it’s a good idea.” He added that he felt there was an “incredible” amount of hostility from reporters toward Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Earlier Friday, Trump tweeted that “it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy” and that “the best thing to do” might be to cancel future press briefings in favor of hand-written responses. This comes after Spicer, Sanders, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump [gave conflicting reports](http://time.com/4776388/james-comey-fired-trump-interview/) for why former FBI Director James Comey was fired earlier in the week. [The White House Correspondents’ Association](http://time.com/4635761/white-house-correspondents-association-donald-trump/) responded to the tweets with a [statement from President Jeff Mason](http://www.whca.net/) saying that the briefings “provide substantive and symbolic opportunities for journalists to pose questions to officials at the highest levels of the U.S. government.” “That exercise, conducted in full view of our republic’s citizens, is clearly in line with the spirit of the First Amendment,” the statement continues. “Doing away with briefings would reduce accountability, transparency, and the opportunity for Americans to see that, in the U.S. system, no political figure is above being questioned.” Mason added that the White House Correspondents’ Association would object to anything that could threaten those constitutionally-protected principles. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4777982/donald-trump-end-press-briefings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4777982/donald-trump-end-press-briefings/"},"headline":"President Trump Doubles Down on Idea of Ending White House Press Briefings","datePublished":"2017-05-12T21:02:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:54:31.681Z","description":"\"I think it's a good idea\"","url":"https://time.com/4777982/donald-trump-end-press-briefings/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc0caaf7dfb114d/6988cd298fd2ee22e735708a/gettyimages-682393170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc0caaf7dfb114d/6988cd298fd2ee22e735708a/gettyimages-682393170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-end=press-briefings","caption":"First Lady Melania Trump Hosts A Celebration Of MilitaryMothers Event","creditText":"Photograph by Chip Somodevilla—Getty","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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4777982/donald-trump-end-press-briefings/","name":"President Trump Doubles Down on Idea of Ending White House Press Briefings"}}]}] ```