Trump threatening to turn White House press room into a swimming pool

Trump has been kicking around the possibility of evicting journalists from the White House since his first term. Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon pitched the idea during the president’s first transition into power, suggesting the press corps be wrangled into a townhouse just north of the White House near Lafayette Square, though senior officials reportedly “rejected the idea out of hand.” What was clearly missing from Bannon’s big-brained plan, of course, was the image of a swimming pool lying clean and unused, its tranquil waters a metaphor for how the president had silenced the free press, or something. 

Most recently, Trump suggested to then-departing Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that she personally evict journalists from the building—”effectively [removing] news organizations from the White House,” according to the Times—as her “last legacy.” (That Trump, always thinking of other people.) The idea of turning the Press Briefing Room into a pool where the president can dip his widdle toesies instead of fielding questions about Iran or his cozy relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin has not come out of nowhere. The room had originally been constructed during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency to treat his polio and remained in the White House until it was drained in 1970 and filled with the crackling din of American journalists doing their good work by, of all presidents, Richard Nixon. Who says Trump isn’t a student of history?