This was strange.
A reporter from a Russian state media outlet was escorted out of the White House on Friday after sneaking into the Oval Office before a critical meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The reporter, working for TASS—one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s primary propaganda outlets—was not on the approved media pool list for the event but managed to gain access to the Oval Office along with journalists from major American outlets like Bloomberg, CNN, Reuters, and the New York Times.
A White House official confirmed that TASS was not authorized to attend the meeting, stating, “As soon as it was discovered that the reporter was inside the Oval Office, he was removed by the Press Secretary. He was not part of the approved pool for the press event.” The official did not clarify how the reporter gained entry to the restricted area.
The individual in question was identified as Dmitry Kirsanov, TASS’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief. According to reports, a Secret Service agent approached Kirsanov during President Trump’s remarks and instructed him to leave the room. He was promptly escorted out of the West Wing.
Despite his short time in the Oval Office, Kirsanov managed to take a photograph of the meeting, which TASS later credited to him. The incident raised concerns about security and media access protocols, though TASS did not respond to requests for comment.
This breach of security comes just days after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made waves by announcing a significant shift in how press access is managed. Leavitt declared that the Trump administration would now control which journalists are granted pool coverage, asserting that this would help “democratize” access to the President and ensure that media coverage reflects a broader spectrum of voices. This move challenges the long-standing influence of the White House Correspondents’ Association in selecting reporters for pool duty, signaling a potential shift in how media relations are handled under the Trump administration.