Trump Announces White House Ban on Three Outlets

the White House began blocking Associated Press journalists from the small press group covering Trump in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One; the AP retained only sporadic access to events in the East Room. Trump said the AP would remain excluded until it used Gulf of America instead of Gulf of Mexico. The AP continued using Gulf of Mexico while noting Trump’s renaming decision, and it challenged the restriction in court.

the White House defended the restriction on the AP, arguing that questioning the president in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One was a privilege granted to journalists rather than a legal right.

the White House took control of the composition of the press pool covering presidential events with limited space. Newsmax and Blaze Media received places traditionally assigned to the Associated Press and Reuters, while Axios was invited instead of HuffPost. Bloomberg reported that the new system limited the role of the three principal newswires, but the source does not establish that Bloomberg was completely removed from the White House that day.

federal judge Trevor N. McFadden issued a preliminary injunction holding that the government could not treat the AP worse than comparable outlets because of its choice of words and ordered the restoration of its full access to presidential events. Implementation was delayed for a week, and immediately after the ruling an AP reporter and photographer were prevented from joining the presidential motorcade.

an AP reporter attended a White House event for the first time since February 11, but the following day no wire service was listed in the press pool. Under the new arrangement, the Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg News had to compete with print reporters for two rotating places, while the press secretary retained daily discretion over the pool’s composition.

Reuters reported that the Trump administration had removed the Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg News from the permanent presidential press pool, although they were still allowed to participate sporadically. The same day, all credentialed journalists were barred from entering Room 140, known as “Upper Press”, without an appointment. That was a general access restriction, not the complete removal of particular outlets or journalists from the White House.

Trump announced that he was immediately banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House, accusing them of unfavorable coverage and publishing “FAKE NEWS”. He threatened restrictions on other outlets but did not explain how the ban would be implemented.