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Trump announces ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico at the White House, with no steps to enforce it

“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!” he wrote

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House “effective immediately,” though by the end of the day there was no indication his administration had taken any step to implement it and reporters from the three outlets were still working at the presidential complex.

“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!” he wrote on his Truth Social network. He added that outlets should not be able to “constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” when covering the presidency, without citing any specific story or coverage that prompted the decision, and warned that “other Fake News Media Outlets” would follow.

A CNN crew was travelling that same Friday as the assigned television pool with Vice President J. D. Vance. According to the network, even White House officials, including members of the press shop, learned of the move from the post and were left seeking details on how it would affect daily operations.

Asked later in the Oval Office about the scope of the measure, Trump said: “It's a very simple ban. I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can.” He said there was no particular reason for announcing it that day and attributed it to “cumulative stories over the last few years.” He also mentioned The New York Times and The Washington Post, and acknowledged that legal challenges could follow: “I think it's good to point it out, whether it survives or doesn't.”

CNN called the move an “illegal assault” on press freedom and said it stands fully behind its team. Politico said it would “vigorously defend” its First Amendment rights. MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, declined to comment.

The president of the White House Correspondents' Association, Jacqui Heinrich, who works for Fox News, said the body stands in “defence” of colleagues “being singled out for doing their jobs” and argued that what is at stake is “the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account” of the presidency.

Three specialist organisations predicted the measure would not survive judicial scrutiny. Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute said the press pool constitutes a “public forum” under the First Amendment and that excluding journalists on the basis of their viewpoints would be unconstitutional. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press described it as “textbook viewpoint discrimination.” The Freedom of the Press Foundation called it illegal.

There are precedents. In 2018, during his first term, Trump revoked the credentials of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta and had to restore them after a lawsuit. In February 2025, the White House took control of the press pool, managed for more than a century by the correspondents' association, and that same month restricted Associated Press access to limited spaces over the agency's use of the term “Gulf of Mexico”; that litigation remains open. CNN is one of five US outlets that film video for the pool, meaning an effective exclusion would also affect coverage by the rest of the press.