The Pentagon has designated its press office as a classified facility, barring credentialed journalists from entering the space where they have long worked alongside defense department officials. The decision, first reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by acting defense department press secretary Jose Valdez on social media, marks the most recent step in a months-long campaign to limit press access to the military’s headquarters.
Valdez said the redesignation was necessary because speechwriters from the “Office of the Secretary of War” share the facility. The Trump administration has adopted “war department” as its preferred name for the Defense Department.
“This is the most transparent war department in history. No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that,” Valdez said in a social media post. He added that because speechwriters handle classified material, “journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space.”
The redesignation as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility means the press office now carries the same classification status as intelligence-scoped spaces that require security clearances for entry. Credentialed journalists have had broad access to the Pentagon for decades, working in a shared press area adjacent to official offices.
The move extends a series of restrictions the defense department began rolling out in September 2025, when the military demanded that journalists pledge not to gather any information — including unclassified documents — that had not been authorized for release or face revocation of their press passes. Many longtime Pentagon reporters refused to agree and turned in their credentials.
In October 2025, the department announced what it called a “next generation of the Pentagon press corps” featuring 60 journalists from far-right outlets to replace credentialed reporters who had declined to sign the pledge.
The New York Times sued the Pentagon over the credentialing policies, which designated journalists as “security risks.” A federal judge ruled in the Times’s favor in March 2026. In response, the defense department issued an interim policy barring journalists from visiting the Pentagon without an official escort. A district judge ruled that the interim policy violated his order, but an appeals court later stayed part of the ruling to give the government time to appeal.
In May 2026, the Times filed a second lawsuit against the Pentagon, arguing that the escort policy constituted “an unconstitutional attempt by the Pentagon to prevent independent reporting on military affairs.” The defense department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.