In 2023, the Biden administration tightened the requirements for obtaining an all-access White House press credential called a "hard pass." After the stricter requirements went into effect, the number of hard passes issued dropped from 1,417 to 975, in part because many journalists chose not to renew them.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Trump was “begging the question” when declaring former President Joe Biden’s apparently auto-penned pardons were “void, vacant, and of no further force of effect” — as the practical effect of the current commander in chief’s pronouncement remains in question.