On Friday, September 18th, 2026, Donald Trump banned CNN, Politico, and MS now from the White House. Trump accused the organizations of writing “fiction” or “lies” about his administration. Reporters were denied access to the White House from Saturday, September 19th onwards
The three outlets have since claimed they will sue and boycott the Trump administration to “”defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports”.
In response to this, the Trump Administration launched “Trump TV” a 24/7 broadcast of the White House controlled by the government.
More than 50 media outlets have signed an amicus brief in solidarity with CNN, Politico, and MS Now in their lawsuit against President Trump. Including news outlets of all political orientations, such as Fox News, The Associated Press, the New York Times, and more.
The joint statement following the brief said: “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
This resulted in no network TV footage of Trump boarding Air Force One or arriving in New York to attend the UN general assembly.
Trump’s decision to ban the three news outlets was condemned as “constitutionally repugnant and harmful to public interest”. It claimed ““The administration’s reasons for doing so are transparently viewpoint discriminatory,”.
The Trump administration claimed the ban was a matter of national security to prevent classified information from leaking to the public, but letters the administration sent to each outlet earlier didn’t claim to have any stories with classified information in them. President Trump has attacked the news outlets for reporting “fake news” and “lies”
Trump later appeared on television after a meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mandani, saying “It’s interesting because, they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me, so I wasn’t very worried about that. Look at all that press.”
This case is assigned to Judge Timothy Kelly, a judge Trump appointed that ruled in favor of then CNN white house correspondent Jim Acosta, whose credentials were revoked by Trump in 2018.
An emergency meeting will be held on Wednesday to consider granting a restraining order to temporarily restore access to the reporters who had their credentials confiscated by the secret service over the weekend.
