Trump Says MS NOW, CNN and Politico Are Barred From White House Over Coverage
By garrisonvance // 2026-09-21
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President Donald Trump said Friday, Sept. 18, that he is banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House over their coverage of him – according to a Truth Social post and remarks he made later in the Oval Office. Trump wrote in the post that the 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 added, "Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow." In the Oval Office on Friday afternoon, Trump said he was imposing the ban in response to "cumulative stories" by the three outlets, telling reporters, "You get sick of it." The White House referred CNBC to the president's latest comments when asked for further comment. MS NOW had no immediate comment, according to the report. The move follows a pattern in which the president has repeatedly targeted news organizations and individual journalists over coverage he describes as unfair. It immediately raised questions about whether the administration can lawfully bar reporters from covering the president based on the content of their work [1].

Background

Trump has previously targeted news outlets and individual journalists over coverage he describes as unfair, according to CNBC, and he has encouraged supporters at political rallies to boo and jeer at reporters present. The White House briefly tried to suspend a CNN reporter's press pass in 2018, and it is currently in litigation over an attempted ban of Associated Press (AP) journalists from certain spaces. The current dispute with the AP began after the wire service continued to use the Gulf of Mexico name despite Trump's attempt to rename it the "Gulf of America." Trump sought to bar the AP from the Oval Office and Air Force One following that decision. A federal judge ruled in April 2025 that Trump's action against the AP was "contrary to the First Amendment," but a federal appeals court prevented that ruling from taking effect while the administration appeals it. The appeals court said in a footnote that the White House could not deny so-called hard passes to larger spaces, such as the East Room, "arbitrarily or based on the content of a journalist's speech," according to the report. No court ruling has addressed the latest ban, and it was not immediately clear whether the targeted outlets would challenge it in court.

Legal and First Amendment Issues

Arthur Spitzer, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told CNBC that his organization believes Trump's post is unconstitutional. "He's plainly discriminating against them because they don't like the way they report the news, and the government isn't supposed to do that," Spitzer said of Trump. "Certainly, our view is the president cannot control, or try to control, the news by banning outlets from official events because he doesn't like the way they're reporting on him." Spitzer is representing the ACLU in an ongoing case related to Trump's ban of AP journalists from certain smaller spaces, including the Oval Office and Air Force One. CNN said in a statement later Friday defending its White House team that it has a right under the U.S. Constitution to do its reporting "without hindrance or interference from the government." The network said: "Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right." Politico said in a statement on X that it "will continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones" and that it "will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them." White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) President Jacqui Heinrich said reporters from the targeted outlets are "being singled out for doing their jobs." Heinrich, a senior White House correspondent for Fox News, added: "This is about more than the rights of journalists. It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation's highest office." Weija Jiang, who was WHCA president until July, responded to Trump's Friday post by quoting the text of the First Amendment, which bars Congress from abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.

Reactions and Government Response

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on X that the Department of War "fully supports President Trump's decision." Hegseth wrote that the department is "grateful these outlets already chose to self-deport from the Pentagon," accusing them of having "endangered our troops" and "trafficked in fiction and lies about the President, our Warriors, and their mission." The department imposed press restrictions last year that led many news outlets to pull reporters from the Pentagon. Politico also said in its statement on X that claims it receives government subsidies "are false and have been thoroughly debunked," responding to another of Trump's remarks. The White House referred CNBC to the president's latest comments in the Oval Office when asked for further comment on the ban. Trump said in the Oval Office that the effort to bar news outlets is worthwhile even if it does not hold up in court. "I think it's good to point it out whether it survives or doesn't," he said. The president has long argued that major news organizations distort his record, an argument that conservative media critics have advanced for years. Independent outlets have documented numerous instances in which large corporate newsrooms published stories later shown to be inaccurate, including a 2017 tally that counted 76 fake news stories pushed by the mainstream media within a month of Trump taking office [2].

Ongoing Litigation and Outlook

A federal judge ruled in April 2025 that Trump's action against the AP was contrary to the First Amendment, but a federal appeals court prevented that ruling from taking effect while the administration appeals. The appeals court said in a footnote that the White House could not deny hard passes to larger spaces such as the East Room arbitrarily or based on the content of a journalist's speech. No court ruling has addressed the latest ban, and it was not immediately clear whether the targeted outlets would challenge it in court, the report stated. The dispute unfolds as the administration already faces litigation over press access and as news organizations weigh the practical and legal costs of fighting access restrictions. The clash also lands amid a broader debate over speech and censorship in the United States. Independent journalists and commentators have argued for years that corporate newsrooms and technology platforms worked together to suppress dissenting voices, including during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) era, and that the public is better served by decentralized, independent media [3].

References

  1. The Epoch Times. "EU Chief Calls for Bloc-Wide Social Media Restrictions for Under-18s". September 17, 2026.
  2. NaturalNews.com. "Its been less than a month since Trump took office and the media has already pushed 76 fake news stories". NaturalNews.com. February 09, 2017.
  3. Mike Adams. "Brighteon Broadcast News - First They Silence You Episode 1". Brighteon.com. January 10, 2021.

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