The rules limit access to several sections of the Pentagon, including office spaces belonging to Hegseth and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They also bar the press from accessing the Pentagon Athletic Center, writing in a Friday X post that the new rules are meant to “reduce the opportunities for in-person inadvertent and unauthorized disclosures.”

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday issued orders that require journalists to have official escorts within much of the Pentagon building, the latest in a series of Trump administration restrictions placed on the press.

Bedevilled by leaks to the media during his short tenure, defence secretary Pete Hegseth issued a series of restrictions on the press late on Friday. They include banning reporters from entering wide swaths of the Pentagon without a government escort,