The Trump administration continues to revamp how the Executive Branch interacts with the media, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday hosting the first-ever “influencer meeting.”
The meeting resembled a typical press briefing — except it was not held in the White House press briefing room, the room was less crowded than usual and it featured several prominent pro-Trump creators and media members, including former Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
“The Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who traditionally has covered this institution,” Leavitt said.
Millions of Americans now turn to podcasts and social media influencers for their news, and President Trump, Leavitt said, wants to embrace that change.
“It’s well past time the White House press operation reflected the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925,” Leavitt added.
Spicer was seated in the front row next to Arynne Wexler, a conservative influencer with about 400,000 followers across X, TikTok and Instagram. Wexler, who dubs herself “just a nonlib girl in a superlib world,” was called on first by Leavitt.
“I can attest to the deportations in Florida — My Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that,” Wexler told Leavitt, drawing a few chuckles from the crowd, before asking about trans women participating in women’s sports.
Other topics that were discussed included: the border wall, British subjects being arrested for posting memes and tax cuts.
Monday’s meeting was held inside the White House South Court Auditorium, which Leavitt said former President Joe Biden used as a “fake Oval Office” during his term. At one point, Rogan O’Handley, a right-leaning influencer who goes by “DC Draino” on X where he has more than 2 million followers, complimented Leavitt, saying she has been “crushing it” in her role.
Spicer, who now co-hosts the “2Way” podcast with Mark Halperin and Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine, asked Leavitt why the president is willing to do interviews with people who have “disdain for him,” such as The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
“The president is unafraid, and he is inspired by competition and he likes to talk to people face to face,” Leavitt told him. “And I think that’s one of his best attributes and qualities.”
The first “influencer meeting” comes as the Trump administration has made several changes to the White House-press relationship. Leavitt, in January, introduced a designated “new media” seat for non-mainstream reporters and influencers at her press briefings; TheWrap looked at some of those new media members, which include Steve Bannon’s “War Room” co-host Natalie Winters and The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan, earlier this year. The White House also debuted “Podcast Row” last month, which allowed several right-leaning podcasters to interview administration officials like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
And, most notably, the White House has been grappling with the Associated Press over the outlet’s refusal to use the term “Gulf of America,” following President Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico on government forms. The Trump press team banned the AP from several locations, including the Oval Office, over its decision, but a federal judge granted the AP an injunction earlier this month that restored its access. Soon after, the White House decided wire news services would no longer be guaranteed a spot in the press pool.
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