US President Donald Trump has said that he has banned three news companies, CNN, MS NOW and Politico, from the White House. This is raising worries about press freedom during his time in office.
He shared the news in a Truth Social Post on Friday. He accused these organisations of always reporting “fiction and lies” about his administration.
He said the ban was “effective immediately.”
“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,” he wrote.
Trump did not mention any specific reports that he thought were false. He also did not say how the ban would be enforced. He warned that other news companies could face the same action.
Trump also claimed that Politico received “an illegal and ridiculous $8 million subscription” from the US government under President Biden.
Politico has denied this claim. But on Friday, reporters from all three organisations were still working at the White House after his social media post.
CNN reported that its team of TV reporters was with Vice President JD Vance when the announcement was made.
CNN pushed back against Trump’s ban. They said they have the right to report from the White House without government interference. They called the ban an illegal attack on press freedom and said they support their White House team and their “fair and accurate reporting.”
“Should the ban, which President Trump threatened, go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally protected right,” it said.
Politico said it would “continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones. We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.”
The US National Press Club also spoke out against the ban. They called it an attack on the free press. The club said banning news organisations from the White House, just because the administration does not like their coverage, is meant to silence the press.
They said it is an attempt to “control voices allowed to witness and report on the exercise of presidential power.”
This is not the first time this has happened. The administration has kept reporters from the White House or other government places because of their reporting many times since Trump took office.
In January 2025, Trump barred Associated Press journalists from parts of the White House, including the Oval Office and Air Force One. The AP has gone to court to restore its access, and the case is still ongoing. In April of the same year, Reuters and Bloomberg News lost their permanent spots in the small group of reporters covering Trump.
In July, the White House removed a Wall Street Journal reporter from the press pool for Trump’s trip to Scotland, because of the Journal’s reporting on Jeffrey Epstein. Two months later, the Pentagon introduced a new rule that required journalists to promise they wouldn’t report authorized information or risk losing their press credentials.
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