From The Washington Post:
Trump says he’s banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House
The president has a history of feuding with news organizations and has at times tried to ban them and their journalists.
When pressed about the nature of the order, Trump told reporters it’d be “a very simple ban.”
“I don’t want him in my office. I don’t want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can,” he said. “And if they could straighten themselves out, you know, if they could save themselves.”
Trump said that he decided to revoke Politico’s access because of the $8 million the Biden administration spent on subscriptions to the news outlet, which Trump later canceled.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for further comment or explanation. A representative from MS NOW did not immediately provide comment.
A CNN spokesperson said the company stands behind its White House team. “We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government,” the spokesperson said. “Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right.”
“Politico will continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones,” the company said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents journalists covering the presidency, disavowed Trump’s planned bans. “The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference,” Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News correspondent serving as the group’s president, wrote in a statement. “That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.”
The White House has for more than a century opened its doors to journalists, many of whom work from dedicated office space near the briefing room each day. While journalists and presidential administrations constantly spar, Trump has been nearly alone in trying to oust reporters and their news organizations from the White House grounds.
Trump has repeatedly feuded with news organizations and at times has tried to ban them and their journalists from White House grounds or certain presidential events.
In February 2025, he banned the Associated Press from events in the Oval Office and Air Force One, among other spaces, over the news outlet and grammatical standard-bearer’s refusal to use the term “Gulf of America” to describe the Gulf of Mexico. The AP sued and won in the district court, but an appeals court stayed much of the decision while it considers the merits of the appeal.
During Trump’s first administration, he banned CNN reporter Jim Acosta and later Playboy reporter Brian Karem from the White House, though both were allowed back after they sued the government.
Those cases and others were brought on First Amendment press-freedom grounds and Fifth Amendment due-process grounds.
Court precedent in press-access cases has largely held that while the government does not have to open its doors to the press, once it does, it cannot decide whether a journalist or outlet gets access based on the content of their reporting.
“A ban like this would be flatly unconstitutional,” Bruce D. Brown, president of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, wrote in a statement. “The First Amendment is clear that once the White House invites in some journalists, it can’t ban others because it doesn’t like their reporting. This is textbook viewpoint discrimination and will be quickly struck down by the courts if challenged.”
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the limiting outlets based on reporting clearly runs afoul of the law.
“The First Amendment prohibits the president from punishing journalists because he doesn’t like their coverage, just as it prohibits him from punishing universities because he doesn’t like the courses they offer, or from punishing law firms because he doesn’t like the clients they represent,” he said. “With so many courts having ruled against him on exactly this point, you’d think President Trump would have learned this lesson by now.”
In a news conference, Trump reiterated to reporters that additional news outlets might eventually be banned. “We haven’t taken the step of throwing them out, but they’re fake news. Totally. New York Times is so fake. Washington Post is disgusting,” he said. “You know, we’re doing so well, and they’ll take the most positive story and make it as negative as possible.”
He added that he would likely avoid displaying print copies of the Times and The Post in the White House as well.
Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement that Friday’s announced bans are an “attempt to restrict Americans’ knowledge about their own government” and that the Times “stands in support of the news organizations being unfairly targeted by the president.”
Representatives of The Post did not provide comment.
An executive at one of the targeted news organizations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said that the ban was unexpected. “We know nothing,” they said. “This came out of the blue.”
Trump, who launched his first successful presidential run in part by assailing the independent press, has in his second term continued to lambast the news media, seized control of picking members of the White House press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association, and executed a secret Air Force One switch without the knowledge of media accompanying him on the trip, which some critics said endangered the press.
He has also sued various news organizations in a personal capacity, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Tensions have also flared between the press and government officials across the Potomac. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instituted strict access rules for reporters covering the Pentagon last year, and as a result, nearly the entire Pentagon press corps deserted the building rather than submit to the rules. The New York Times sued the government in a case that is ongoing.
Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.
