Trump Floats Tearing Down WH Briefing Room for FDR’s Swimming Pool in Late-Night Post

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

President Donald Trump appeared to tease replacing the White House press briefing room with former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s historic swimming pool, sharing a mock-up of a dramatic makeover in a late-night Truth Social post.

Trump shared side-by-side images on Sunday showing the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room alongside an ornate rendering of a restored indoor pool.

The existing room was branded “Fake News, Before,” while the proposed replacement was labeled “FDR Pool After.”

(Screengrab via Truth Social)

It was not immediately clear whether Trump was announcing an actual renovation plan or merely taunting the press corps.

But the post comes a week after a fiery confrontation between Trump and the press after the president moved to bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from access to the White House press corps. The three organizations sued, arguing the restrictions violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights. A federal judge eventually restored their access.

Major TV networks had also suspended their participation in the White House video pool after CNN was excluded from the rotation.

Trump’s proposed pool digs in on some history. Roosevelt had an indoor swimming pool constructed in the West Terrace in 1933 after his polio diagnosis, using swimming as a form of exercise. Former Presidents Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson also regularly used it.

Former President Richard Nixon, however, had flooring installed over the pool in 1970 to create space for the expanding White House press corps. The pool itself was preserved beneath the floor so that it could potentially be restored in the future.

The White House still has another swimming pool outdoors, installed by former President Gerald Ford on the South Grounds in 1975.

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