US President Donald Trump announced Friday he was banning news outlets CNN, MS. NOW, and Politico from the White House, accusing them without specifics of reporting “fiction and lies.”
Trump also stated that “other fake news media outlets” would face a similar fate but did not say which ones.
This action immediately sparked claims that it was unconstitutional and would be rejected by the courts.
“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW… and Politico… from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ fake news!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Trump did not explain what had led to the decision, but he added that “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.”
Later in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters, “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they’re going to write false stories all the time.”
“It’s really just cumulative stories over the last two years.
“You get sick of it,” he said. “They’re smart people, but they purposely write negative news, and they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration.”
It is highly unusual for US presidents to completely exclude news outlets from the White House, though Trump did ban a CNN reporter during his first term, and Richard Nixon imposed restrictions on The Washington Post because of its coverage of the Watergate scandal.
However, in his second term, Trump’s administration has imposed tighter restrictions on reporters, including deciding which journalists are allowed to cover events as part of the “pool” granted access to cramped areas like the Oval Office and Air Force One.
Last year, Trump excluded The Associated Press from certain events after the news agency chose to keep using the term “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America,” as Trump had ordered.
At that point, reporters from Politico and CNN were still present in the White House press room after Trump’s announcement.
Throughout both of the 80-year-old president’s terms in the White House, he has repeatedly lashed out at media outlets whose coverage he finds displeasing.
Trump has brought multiple defamation lawsuits against news organizations, criticized the press on Truth Social, and verbally attacked several reporters, women in particular.
Trump’s unexpected announcement on Friday arrives as his approval ratings sit at record lows and his Republican Party faces the risk of losing its grip on Congress in November’s midterm elections.
The conflict in Iran and escalating prices, especially at the gas pump, are among the elements that have driven his declining political standing.
Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, stated that banning the media outlets would be “flatly unconstitutional.”
