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Just over a month into Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s second term, press secretary Karoline Leavitt<\/strong> stood behind the podium in the briefing room and triumphantly announced<\/a> that the administration was \u201cgoing to give the power back to the people\u201d by taking over the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association\u2019s traditional role of determining the daily press pool<\/a>, the small group of journalists who cover the president\u2019s words and actions in more intimate settings for the larger press corps.<\/p>\n Jacqui Heinrich<\/strong> rejects the premise that the WHCA is restrictive in regard to expanding membership, telling Vanity Fair,<\/em> \u201cAt the end of the day, an independent press should be able to organize its own coverage without any interference or involvement from the government.\u201d Heinrich, 36, not only covers the administration on a daily basis as Fox News\u2019 senior White House correspondent, but also currently serves on the board of the WHCA, the specific target of Trump\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n Given her role on the board, to which she was elected for a three-year term, Heinrich felt as though she had to speak out against the attempts to take power away from the journalist-led organization, which has been advocating for media access to the presidency since 1914. \u201cThis move does not give the power back to the people – it gives power to the White House,\u201d Heinrich wrote in an X post<\/a>, responding to the White House\u2019s unprecedented takeover. \u201cOur job is to advocate for the MOST access possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Heinrich\u2019s job requires daily interaction with White House officials, so before publicly criticizing the move\u2014a relatively rare showing of a Fox News personality taking issue with the Trump administration\u2014Heinrich made sure to give a heads-up to the White House press shop to ensure that no bridges were burned in the process. \u201cI am going to make these statements, and I just want you to know that it has nothing to do with any one of you people individually,\u201d Heinrich recalls warning administration press officials. \u201cIt\u2019s just about this being a very significant choice that\u2019s been made, and in my role on the board, I need to speak up for that.\u201d So far, she says, there hasn\u2019t been \u201cany negative impact on my working relationship with them at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, however, Trump has personally attacked Heinrich on Truth Social<\/a>, calling her \u201cabsolutely terrible\u201d after watching her anchor a weekend Fox News program. \u201cNot surprisingly, I later found out that she\u2019s a fan of the White House Correspondents Association!\u201d Trump wrote. (Heinrich\u2019s work has also rankled<\/a> some Trump allies, including former Fox News star Tucker Carlson.<\/strong>) The president\u2019s barb \u201cdidn\u2019t keep me up at night,\u201d Heinrich says, but the reporter did request a meeting with Trump to \u201cfigure out what it was\u201d that irked him so deeply. \u201cI still don\u2019t really know what that was about,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Looking ahead to Saturday\u2019s annual WHCA dinner in Washington, Heinrich says that even without Trump at the Hilton, the event will still be valuable, as the \u201cimportance of journalism\u201d should be celebrated regardless of whether he\u2019s present. Still, she notes that \u201cit\u2019s not too late for him to change his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n Vanity Fair:<\/em> The pace at which this administration has churned out news has been very rapid. How are you handling coverage of an administration that\u2019s been moving so quickly?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jacqui Heinrich:<\/strong> One way I approach things is just to take the 30,000-foot view. There are common threads that go through everything that he\u2019s doing. If you can hold on to that, it helps to not be battered by the volume of information that\u2019s coming your way.<\/p>\n For the first 100 days, the three takeaways that I have are that this administration is trying to, early on, determine the scope of the president’s power by driving a lot of these Supreme Court cases, whether it has to do with deportations or something else. They want to have an early nod from the Supreme Court on what it is that they can do, so that can inform the rest of these four years. Then also reorganizing the world in a way that prioritizes America, whether that be with alliances and partnerships or the global economy. Then also undoing everything, every mark that [Joe] Biden<\/strong> left, if the president can do it. One of the most consistent things that I hear from my sources is that if one of the president’s advisers will say, \u201cWell, this is how Biden did it,\u201d President Trump will immediately want to veer in the other direction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n