The White House press secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the executive branch of the United States federal government, especially with regard to the president, senior aides and executives, as well as government policies.
The press secretary is responsible for collecting information about actions and events within the president's administration and issues the administration's reactions to developments around the world. The press secretary interacts with the media and the White House press corps on a daily basis, generally in a daily press briefing. The press secretary serves by the appointment and at the pleasure of the president of the United States; the office does not require the advice and consent of the United States Senate; however, because of the frequent briefings given to the global media, who in turn inform the public, the position is a prominent non-Cabinet post.
On January 20, 2025, Karoline Leavitt became the 36th White House press secretary.
History
Early press relations
thumb|right|330px|In August 2006, President [[George W. Bush hosted seven White House press secretaries before the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room underwent renovation. From left, Joe Lockhart, Dee Dee Myers, Marlin Fitzwater, Bush, Tony Snow, Ron Nessen, and James Brady (seated) with his wife Sarah Brady.]]
During the United States' early years, there was not a single designated staff person or office responsible for managing the relationship between the president and the growing number of journalists and media entities that were covering him. It was not until after President Abraham Lincoln's administration that Congress formally appropriated funds for a White House staff, which at first consisted merely of a secretary. Ulysses S. Grant's White House staff officially numbered six people at a cost of $13,800, though he supplemented with personnel from the War Department. Fifty years later under the Coolidge administration, the staff had increased to just fewer than fifty people at a cost of nearly $100,000. the small size of the White House staff at that point meant that Nicolay interacted with the press occasionally in carrying out his duties. including providing information to reporters later in the evening if events had transpired in the afternoon, offering advance copies of remarks prepared for the president, and ensuring reporters received transcripts of unprepared remarks made by the president while traveling, which were recorded by a stenographer. The nascent press corps' appreciation for Cortelyou's responsiveness is similar to how a modern White House press secretary's responsiveness to the press corps can shape their positive or negative view of him or her.
Working space in the White House for the press corps
The White House "beat" concept that had been started during the Cleveland administration by reporter William Price was continued during the McKinley administration. and the now-famous James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, which was renovated by the George W. Bush administration in 2007.
Woodrow Wilson administration
When Woodrow Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey in 1910, he asked Joseph P. Tumulty to serve as his private secretary. offering statements or quotes not directly attributable to a specific person, which was used frequently by Henry Kissinger during the Nixon administration. Roosevelt held well over 300 press conferences during his first term. Hagerty had previously been press secretary for New York governor Thomas E. Dewey during his two tries for the presidency. After he won election, Eisenhower appointed Hagerty to be White House press secretary.
Hagerty's experience as a journalist helped him perform his role more effectively: "Having spent years as a reporter on the other side of the news barrier, he was not blinded to the reporter's dependence on deadlines, transmission facilities, prompt texts of speeches and statements and the frequent necessity of having to ask seemingly irrelevant and inconsequential questions", wrote John McQuiston in the New York Times".
Towle concludes that history had judged Hagerty and Salinger as successful. Lyndon Johnson confided in Salinger but distrusted the media and hobbled his next three press secretaries. Nixon throughout his career saw the press as the enemy, and the media responded in hostile fashion, leaving the young inexperienced Ronald Ziegler with a hopeless challenge. President Ford's first secretary was Jerald F. terHorst – he resigned in protest when Ford pardoned Nixon. Next came Ronald Nessen, who quickly acquired a reputation as inept, uninformed or noncredible, especially on foreign affairs. At the opposite extreme, the successful Jody Powell had been a close advisor to Carter for years, and could explain clearly how the president reasoned about issues. Carter said he "probably knows me better than anyone except my wife."
- Truman administration – Jonathan W. Daniels, a newspaper editor who was in the Franklin Roosevelt administration in multiple agencies and on various boards just prior to becoming press secretary; Charlie Ross, a journalist who received the Pulitzer Prize in 1932; Early; Joseph Short, a newspaper editor; and Roger Tubby, a reporter and editor turned Democratic National Committee spokesman before becoming White House press secretary
- Eisenhower administration – James Hagerty, a reporter for The New York Times
- Kennedy administration – Pierre Salinger, a reporter and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle
- Johnson administration – appointed George Christian, a reporter for International News Service and PBS commentator Bill Moyers
- Ford administration – appointed Jerald terHorst, a newspaper veteran; and Ron Nessen, an NBC News correspondent
- Reagan administration – Larry Speakes, a newspaper editor; and Marlin Fitzwater, a newspaper editor
- George H. W. Bush administration – Marlin Fitzwater
- Obama administration – Jay Carney, Time journalist.
- Trump administration – Kayleigh McEnany, Fox News Channel political commentator.
- Biden administration – Jen Psaki, CNN political commentator.
List of press secretaries
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|rowspan=5 |<br>(1945–1953)
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|rowspan=4 |<br>(1963–1969)
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|rowspan=3 |<br>(1981–1989)
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|rowspan=4 |<br>(2001–2009)
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|rowspan=3 |<br>(2009–2017)
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|rowspan=4 |<br>(2017–2021)
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|rowspan=2 |<br>(2021–2025)
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|Incumbent
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Notes
See also
- Press secretary
- Kremlin Press Secretary
References
Further reading
- Cavari, Amnon. The Party Politics of Presidential Rhetoric (Cambridge University Press. 2017).
- Clayman, Steven E., et al. "Historical Trends in Questioning Presidents, 1953‐2000." Presidential Studies Quarterly 36.4 (2006): 561–583. online
- Clayman, Steven E., et al. "A watershed in White House journalism: Explaining the post-1968 rise of aggressive presidential news." Political Communication 27.3 (2010): 229–247. online
- Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew. "Presidential influence of the news media: The case of the press conference." Political Communication 30.4 (2013): 548–564.
- French, Blaire Atherton. The presidential press conference: Its history and role in the American political system (1982)
- Grossman, Michael Baruch, and Martha Joynt Kumar, eds. Portraying the president: The White House and the news media (1981).
- Han, Lori Cox, ed. Hatred of America's Presidents: Personal Attacks on the White House from Washington to Trump (ABC-CLIO, 2018).
- Juergens, George. News from the White House: The presidential-press relationship in the progressive era. (1981)
- Julian, Danielle. "Sean Spicer is the News: The Relationship Between Sean Spicer and The White House Press Corps". (Thesis. Auckland University of Technology, 2018.) oenline
- ; also another copy
- Kumar, Martha Joynt. "The office of the press secretary." Presidential Studies Quarterly 31.2 (2001): 296–322. online
- Kumar, Martha Joynt. "Conveying Presidential News: The White House Press Corps Covers the President." Presidential Studies Quarterly 38.4 (2008): 674–692.
- Kumar, Martha Joynt. Managing the President's Message: The White House Communications Operation (Johns Hopkins UP, 2007).
- Maltese, John Anthony. Spin control: The White House Office of Communications and the management of presidential news (U of North Carolina Press, 2000).
- Meeks, Lindsey. "Questioning the president: Examining gender in the White House press corps." Journalism 19.4 (2018): 519–535.
- Nelson, W. Dale. Who Speaks for the President?: The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton (Syracuse UP, 1998) online free to borrow
- Parry, Pam. Eisenhower: The Public Relations President (Lexington Books, 2014).
- Pollard, James E. The presidents and the press (1947).
- Ponder, Stephen. Managing the press: Origins of the media presidency 1897–1933 (1998)
- Spear, Joseph C. Presidents and the press: the Nixon legacy (1984) online free to borrow
- Spicer, Sean. The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President (Simon and Schuster, 2018). Primary source
- Spragens, William C., and Carole Ann Terwoord. From spokesman to Press Secretary : White House media operations (1980) online free to borrow
- Startt, James. Woodrow Wilson, the Great War, and the Fourth Estate (2017).
- Tebbel, John, and Sarah Miles Watts. The Press and the Presidency: From George Washington to Ronald Reagan (1985)
- Towle, Michael J. "On behalf of the president: Four factors affecting the success of the presidential press secretary." Presidential Studies Quarterly 27.2 (1997): 297–319. online
External links
- Briefing Room at the official White House website
- Barack Obama Press Briefings at the National Archives and Records Administration's archive of the official White House website
- George W. Bush Administration Press Briefings at the National Archives and Records Administration's archive of the official White House website
- Clinton administration archives at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center