Media Outlets Clash with Trump as White House Access Revoked
CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the Trump administration Monday to restore their White House access after reporters for all three outlets were turned away from the property over the weekend.
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the outlets said in a joint statement.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the statement went on. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
The 27-page filing — which names Trump, White House communications director Steven Cheung, Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as defendants — said the president’s Friday announcement that the outlets were barred from the executive mansion “could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.
“[T]he Constitution protects the liberty and property interests that news organizations and White House reporters have in their press credentials and the access those credentials afford them to cover the White House for the benefit of the public. No official can deprive Plaintiffs of those interests on a whim—with no notice, no process, and no warning—as the President did here,” the suit added.
Also Monday, the five TV networks — CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox News — who distribute footage of presidential events to the rest of the press corps and outlets around the world, announced Monday the service was suspended until further notice.
“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” wrote Bryan Boughton, senior vice president of Fox News’ Washington bureau and the current TV pool chair, in an email to the rest of the White House press corps. “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
Monday was CNN’s turn to staff the TV pool, meaning it would have provided video of President Trump’s trip to New York for meetings with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Trump’s travel will still be covered by print, radio and wire journalists, along with still photographers. The White House also has an in-house video camera that follows the president and broadcasts footage on social media channels.
The declaration by Boughton marks an escalation in the latest battle between Trump and the media.
During an Oval Office event Friday, the president claimed his edict was the result of “cumulative stories over the last two years” rather than any single report, adding: “You get sick of it.”
“I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” Trump added. “I would say the ban would go as far as you can, and if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it.”
In response to the lawsuit announcement Monday morning, the president posted on Truth Social: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president decided to announce the ban after his executive assistant, Natalie Harp, showed him a montage of MS NOW anchors critiquing the administration.
The previous day, Akayla Gardner of MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), CNN reporter Betsy Klein and Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett were refused entry to the White House grounds by the Secret Service, which also confiscated their press passes.
As a result, reporters and producers from all three organizations are prevented from accessing their workspace adjacent to the White House briefing room. CNN and MS NOW also cannot use their equipment and broadcast position on the North Lawn.
On Monday, first lady Melania Trump’s office approved Klein’s credential request to cover an event featuring the president’s wife on the sidelines of the UNGA.
Friday’s announcement was Trump’s most aggressive move against the press so far in his second term after the Associated Press was removed last year from pooled access after the wire service refused to go along with his rebrand of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
The AP sued and was later allowed into the daily print pool rotation, made up of more than 30 outlets, but its previous access to all presidential events has yet to be restored. That legal fight is ongoing.
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson
