Sean Spicer, right, made multiple unannounced appearances in the West Wing’s press workspace. | AP Photo Rough first day for press in Trump's White House

The pomp and circumstance ended in pandemonium in the White House briefing room.

President Donald Trump’s staff teased the press all afternoon on Friday about whether Trump would sign executive orders.


“A possibility,” said Press Secretary Sean Spicer. “Potentially,” said strategic communications director Hope Hicks. “Don’t start drinking yet,” said deputy Communications director Raj Shah. The back-and-forth ended with Trump signing an executive order allowing federal agencies to disregard provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

In the hours leading up to Trump's signing, Spicer emerged repeatedly, without warning, to address the press in the briefing room, prompting reporters to run through the corridor and push each other out of the way. He announced, at first, that Trump would sign two executive orders. Then he announced there’d be three actions – and in the end, only one of them was actually an executive order.

Though he promised a full readout of the executive order, a vague directive to agencies to “ease the burden” of Obamacare before it’s repealed, Spicer ultimately delivered a 30-second statement that didn’t mention the order, and tweeted to confirm it had been signed.

Earlier, Spicer—and other top members of the Trump administration—made multiple unannounced appearances in the West Wing’s press workspace. But it was a reminder that accessibility is not at all the same thing as transparency—and there would be no speedy rapprochement between Trump and the journalists he called “animals” and selectively banned from covering his campaign.

After Trump won, his aides alarmed the press with public musings about moving their briefings and work space out of the White House.

But on Friday, the press’s modest basement and break room became a key stop on tours for top Trump officials.

“America’s got a fresh coat of paint. Maybe the press room should too,” said counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, standing under the harsh fluorescent lights of the press basement. “Gut renovation.”

Conway toured the space—with its crowded cubicles, crammed broadcast booths and spoiling breakfast, crusty carpeting and bathrooms that open directly into the lunch room—with director of strategic communications Hope Hicks. Shortly before them, Trump’s senior counselor Steve Bannon swung by. As executive chairman of Breitbart News, Bannon is no stranger to newsrooms. But even he seemed taken aback by the working conditions in the seat of American power.

After his tour, a reporter asked if the press could keep their space.

“Now that I see what it’s like, yes,” he replied.

Reporters reacted with alarm when Trump transition officials mused openly about the possibility of moving media briefings and offices into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Though still technically part of the White House and home to offices of many key staff, the move would end a tradition that has allowed reporters to essentially walk into the offices of press staff at any time.

One reporter even tweeted pictures of White House correspondents hard at work in the press basement on Friday morning to show the need for the space, even though Trump has already publicly backed away from the idea. But while the designated press space next to the West Wing is symbolic, and convenient, it’s not particularly pleasant or spacious. Indeed, having room for more reporters, both at desks and during press conferences, was a central rationale for finding a new venue, the Trump team said.

“You know what, I tried to get you more space!” Spicer said during a visit to the reporters’ realm on Friday. It was actually less crowded than usual at the White House on Friday, since only reporters with permanent White House credentials could get into the building, with only two time windows for access in the morning.

In addition to the house calls, Trump’s aides made other efforts to be accessible. Raj Shah popped into the briefing room and stakeout area at front of the West Wing to answer questions, and the system for emailing press releases and pool reports to the media was up and running shortly after Trump finished his inaugural address. When a reporter complained that the door between the briefing room and press staff offices was locked, Shah quickly had it opened again.

But by the end of the evening, the housecalls and casual banter reverted back to suspicion and Twitter sniping.

Spicer used an erroneous pool report claiming that a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. had been removed from the Oval Office—the reporter corrected himself and apologized—to issue a 140-character lecture with “A reminder of the media danger of tweet first check facts later.”



A reminder of the media danger of tweet first check facts later https://t.co/dYqwRv1p0f — Sean Spicer (@PressSec) January 21, 2017