Wallsten started his career writing for the Miami Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Charlotte Observer and the Congressional Quarterly.
He became a White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times in 2004, and authored, with Tom Hamburger, One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century.
Wallsten joined The Wall Street Journal in 2009 as a national political reporter before moving to the Post to become a White House correspondent in 2010.
[2] Wallsten is partially blind as a result of Stargardt disease, which is a genetically inherited form of macular degeneration.
Unaware of the journalist's medical condition, the president questioned Wallsten's need to wear sunglasses when the sun wasn't visible.