By Jacob Bogage and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump said on Friday he is banning three major news outlets – CNN, MS NOW and Politico – from the White House in his latest move to crack down on the independent press.
Trump wrote that he is banning the outlets for allegedly “reporting FAKE NEWS” in a move that is likely to be challenged as conflicting with the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press.
“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,” Trump wrote on social media. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
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.
US 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.
(Reporting by Jacob Bogage and David Shepardson, additional reporting by Jasper Ward and Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; writing by Bhargav Acharya and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Scott Malone and Will Dunham)
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