President Trump cut a ribbon at the White House on Monday—and almost no one could hear what he said. With TV networks boycotting pool coverage and only the official White House video feed rolling, the president’s comments at the inauguration of the White House’s new helipad were lost under background noise, Mediaite reports. TV crews normally work to capture clearer audio, but with the press pool absent, it’s not clear what the president said to officials and members of a construction crew, reports the AP.
“Actually, the networks literally built the infrastructure to transmit from the White House,” Weijia Jiang, former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said on X. “They’re the ones with the resources to do it daily. That includes a considerable amount for staff, equipment, & travel costs. We then pool footage to other outlets. It is a public service.”
Fox News, ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC collectively pulled their cameras on Monday after the administration blocked CNN from pool duties. “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting,” the networks said in a joint statement. On Friday, Trump said journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were banned from the White House. Trump didn’t answer questions that reporters shouted before he boarded Marine One to travel to New York, the AP reports. On Truth Social, he wrote, “We are just leaving the White House Lawn on the maiden voyage from the newly built, and very beautiful, Heliport!”