News coverage of the White House this week is uncertain after President Donald Trump banned CNN, MSNOW and Politico from access to the White House, prompting a lawsuit, as well as solidarity from other outlets.
The three affected outlets on Monday shared they filed an emergency lawsuit against the White House, and other television outlets in Washington announced they’d be standing in solidarity with their fellow reporters by not covering the president.
The uncertainty comes as Trump has a busy week of events meeting with several foreign leaders.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues Trump banned the three outlets for “one simple reason,” which is that he “dislikes the content of their coverage of him and his administration.”
Trump on Friday said the ban from the White House was a result of their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote online.
Trump’s tune changed Monday, saying he cherished the free press. He said the ban was instead an assault on “fake news,” which he called a “cancer.”
“It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control,” he wrote online. “It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
Vice President JD Vance argued Monday that the president was not banning media outlets.
“What he’s doing is saying we’re not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda,” Vance said, alleging that 92% of the stories about Trump from the three banned outlets “are negative.”
“That’s not representative of the American people, that’s not of the public opinion, so if you’re going to engage in what is effectively far-left propaganda, why would a Republican administration give you access?” he asked.
Vance went on to say that the outlets can still report on the White House, but Trump said they won’t get “special access inside the White House.”
The outlets in their suit argue that Trump’s ban was baseless and was over news coverage he didn’t agree with, with the president himself saying it was about “cumulative stories over the last two years.” The White House put out social media posts detailing “hoaxes” reported by the outlets, CNN being one of them, and said the coverage was incorrect or false, but did not provide evidence.
“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles. Presidents from the earliest days of the Republic have disagreed with and complained about the tenor and content of press coverage of their administration,” the lawsuit said.
The media outlets also argue that the administration did not give them notice or process that their journalists’ credentials would be revoked due to their coverage. They argue that if Trump’s ban were not challenged in court, it threatens the freedom of the press and the public’s right to independent journalism that has no government interference.
The lawsuit was randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy James Kelly, a 2017 Trump nominee. He previously presided over CNN v. Trump, a lawsuit about Trump’s decision to revoke Jim Acosta’s White House press credentials and denying him access to White House grounds. The judge ruled in Acosta’s favor, pending trial but CNN dropped the suit.
In a joint statement Monday, the country’s top television outlets, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC, said the public has a “vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government.” They said no presidential administration should restrict that.
Members of the media that cover the White House are part of the White House press pool. Reporters from outlets are assigned to deliver updates about the president’s events and remarks, allowing other outlets and the public to have real-time information to report.
The White House refused to allow CNN to serve as the pool representative Monday. It prompted major television networks to stand in solidarity with the outlet and suspend planned pool coverage of the president.
In a statement, Bryan Boughton, who runs the Fox News Washington bureau and is the current White House television pool chair, said, as of Monday, the “TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.”
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” he wrote. “There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
The update from Boughton is an escalation in the issue, particularly since Trump has several key events this week. He will travel to New York City on Monday to meet with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and French President Emmanuel Macron. On Tuesday he will speak at the United Nations General Assembly and meet with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Andy Burnham. On Wednesday, he has a state visit in Washington with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
According to the daily guidance put out by the White House, Trump has a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Lawn at 1:45 p.m. EDT. It’s unclear what the coverage of the event will look like following the TV pool announcement.
He will then depart for New York to meet with Mamdani and Macron. During his out-of-town visits, an out-of-town pool is set to cover the president, but no TV pool has been assigned, meaning his visit to the United Nations General Assembly won’t be covered and shared by the major U.S. television networks.