When she took the podium for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, Karoline Leavitt became the youngest White House press secretary in history. The 27-year-old New Hampshire native is the sixth working mother in a row to hold the post.

In the 45-minute-long briefing, Leavitt was repeatedly pressed to answer questions about a controversial freeze on all federal grants, the firing of career civil servants and watchdog inspectors general, and (much) more. Before she took questions, however, Leavitt announced several changes to the White House briefings designed to “bring in more voices.”

Her opening statement referenced Trump’s campaign strategy that frequently prioritized podcasters, social media stars, and other outside voices over mainstream media:

In keeping with the revolutionary media approach that President Trump deployed during the campaign, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities — not just the legacy media who are seated in this room. According to recent polling from Gallup, Americans’ trust in mass media has fallen to a record low. Millions of Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume their news from podcasts, blogs, social media, and other independent outlets. It’s essential to our team that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape in 2025.

Leavitt said the front row in the briefing room — typically occupied by staff — would be reserved for “new media” members moving forward. She invited “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators” to apply for credentials online.

“Whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster … if you are producing legitimate news content, no matter the medium, you will be allowed to apply for press credentials to this White House,” Leavitt said. “As long as you are creating news-related content of the day and you’re a legitimate independent journalist, you’re welcome to cover this White House.”

“Americans are consuming their news media from various different platforms, especially young people,” Leavitt pointed out later. (She is not wrong about that, as Nieman Lab readers well know.)

She took her first questions from Axios co-founder Mike Allen and Matthew Boyle of Breitbart News. Neither strikes me as an “outsider” in D.C. but the move did reverse a tradition to call on the Associated Press for the first question. Allen asked if the president saw “anything fishy” about AI company DeepSeek and Boyle asked about the “new media” policies.

You can see the full briefing here.