CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sued the Trump administration Monday over the White House ban that has kept their reporters out of the building since Saturday.
The fight started Friday afternoon, when Trump posted on Truth Social that he was banning the three outlets effective immediately, accusing them of constantly reporting fake news and warning that other outlets could face the same treatment. A source told CNN that even some members of the White House press office were caught off guard by the announcement.
By Saturday morning, the ban was real. Reporters Akayla Gardner of MS NOW, Betsy Klein of CNN, and Cheyenne Haslett of Politico showed up for work and were denied entry, and a Secret Service officer took their hard passes. A hard pass is the permanent press credential that lets a reporter come and go from the White House grounds without applying for access every day. Gardner said she arrived to find her badge simply no longer worked.
On Sunday night, the White House went a step further and pulled CNN from its scheduled turn in the press pool for Monday, the day Trump was set to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The press pool is a small group of reporters who travel with and cover Trump up close, then share what they see with every other news outlet that is not in the room. The White House Correspondents’ Association runs it, and outlets take turns. Losing a pool slot means losing a front row seat to the events everyone else relies on.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, names the three outlets and the three reporters as plaintiffs. It argues the White House ban violates the First Amendment, which protects the press from government punishment over what it reports, and due process, the constitutional guarantee that the government has to give notice and a fair process before taking something away from you. The outlets are asking a judge to act immediately and restore their access, and hearings could come as soon as this week.In a joint statement, the outlets said the White House revoked their credentials without notice or process because it objected to their reporting, and that they are suing to defend the principle that “the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
Trump responded Monday on Truth Social, writing that the White House is not attacking the free press, which he said he cherishes, but is going after what he called fake news. He described that as out of control and a threat to national security.
This is not the first time Trump has tried to block reporters and ended up in court. In 2018, the White House pulled the press pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta. CNN sued, and a federal judge Trump himself appointed temporarily restored Acosta’s access, ruling that the White House had violated his due process rights. The White House later gave Acosta his pass back permanently, and CNN dropped the case
In 2025, the White House banned The Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and some events after the AP refused to call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump’s preferred name, the Gulf of America. The AP sued, and that case is still ongoing.
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