Trump bans CNN, Politico, MS NOW from White House

President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon announced an immediate ban on several media outlets from the White House, accusing each of reporting fake news, according to a statement. Media outlets should not be allowed to constantly report lies when covering the U.S. president, he wrote. Trump’s ban applied to CNN, Politico, and MS NOW, but he warned that bans against other sites he identified as fake news outlets would follow.

Hasn’t Trump done this before? Trump briefly banned reporters from the Associated Press from coverage inside the White House and other press pool events in early 2025. The president took issue with the Associated Press keeping the Gulf of Mexico in its style guide after he issued an executive order to call it the Gulf of America. The Associated Press and other media groups sued over the action, and litigation remains ongoing.

How are critics responding? Dozens of politicians released statements condemning Trump’s ban, which many viewed as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s guaranteed right to a free press. Fascist and communist governments suppress truthful reporting and only grant press access to favorable outlets, which is exactly what the Trump administration is doing, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass, wrote.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., accused Trump of trampling the constitutional right to a free press and characterized the administration as having a staggering amount of corruption. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., likened the ban to North Korean-type censorship.