U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he might bar other media outlets from the White House, hours after saying CNN, MS NOW and Politico were banned.
“I don’t want them in my office,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I don’t want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he is banning the outlets from the White House for allegedly “reporting FAKE NEWS” in a move that is likely to be challenged as conflicting with the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press.
CNN, MS NOW, Politico and the National Press Club did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CNN’s team remains at the White House working as if it were a normal Friday afternoon, CNN reporter Brian Stelter said on air.
Trump has a long history of bickering with members of the press corps and has stepped up his complaints during his second term in office.
And he has repeatedly urged broadcasters to drop comedy or news programs he dislikes or which have joked about or criticized him or his administration, calling on the Federal Communications Commission to strip disfavored broadcast stations of their licenses.
In 2019, the White House credential of Brian Karem, a Playboy magazine correspondent, was suspended after he traded insults with Sebastian Gorka, then an aide to the president, in the White House Rose Garden.
A judge later ordered the White House to reinstate Karem’s credential.
Since returning to the presidency in January 2025, Trump has openly badgered reporters, particularly from US television networks.
Last year, he also banned the Associated Press from the usual pool of reporters that cover his movements because the news agency did not adopt Trump’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump has instructed executive branch employees to refer to as the Gulf of America.
U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, the lead Democrat on the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, called Trump’s action censorship.
“If Trump thinks banning media outlets from the White House will make his presidency seem less like a failure, he’s delusional,” Pallone said.
Jacob Bogage and David Shepardson, Reuters
