Press freedom groups sound the alarm: ‘The White House can’t be allowed to decide which journalists are able to cover the president’
Statements continue to roll in from press freedom groups on Donald Trump’s move on Friday to ban CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House for the grave crime of not producing sufficiently flattering coverage of him the president.
Here is some of what Seth Stern, chief of advocacy of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement:
It’s difficult to imagine a more blatant violation of the First Amendment than Trump banning news outlets from the People’s House for criticizing the government. It’s also hard to imagine a dumber move. The historically unpopular president has been retaliating against the press for years, but it hasn’t helped him. The press keeps exposing his corruption and his failures. These outrageous attacks only demonstrate how scared he is of an informed public.
“Someone needs to explain to President Trump how the First Amendment works,” Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation director at PEN America chimed in. “As we’ve seen time and time again, this administration’s hostility toward the press is never about the accuracy of news stories, but about its inability to withstand scrutiny of its actions. The White House can’t be allowed to decide which journalists are able to cover the president based on the content of their news coverage.”
Aaron Terr, the director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said:
When the White House opens its doors to the press, it must comply with the First Amendment. The president is as free as any other person to criticize media coverage. But he can’t ban outlets from the White House just because he doesn’t like their reporting or commentary. Press credentials aren’t a reward for loyalty to the government. A free, even adversarial, press is a sign of our country’s strength. The public deserves to hear about its government from independent voices, not just its leader’s loyalists and allies.
Key events
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Closing summary
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Trump points to partisan, rightwing reporters as the kind of journalists he wants around him
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Press freedom groups sound the alarm: ‘The White House can’t be allowed to decide which journalists are able to cover the president’
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Thousands rally outside the Kennedy Center in face of Trump demolition threats
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‘It just stinks – it’s corruption’: Utah Republican Senator John Curtis says of Russian oligarch paying for Donald Trump Jr’s wedding party
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Trump to meet Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodríguez next week
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White House Correspondents’ Association notes Trump himself called his ban on three news outlets a ‘ban on the free press’
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Trump and leaders of Denmark and Greenland announce security pact to be signed next week
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In chaotic news conference, Trump refers to barring CNN, Politico and MS Now as his ‘ban on the free press’
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Trump says that his son paid back Kremlin-linked Russian who covered wedding party costs
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Trump defends banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from White House: ‘I don’t think a court should allow fake news’
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Journalists, lawmakers attack Trump’s order to block news outlets from White House
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Here’s a quick recap of the day’s headlines:
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Trump says he has banned CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House
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Officials say Pentagon’s tally of military deaths in Iran war is an undercount, Washington Post reports
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Report: Trump’s FBI chief halted cooperation with Canadian authorities over broadcaster’s guidelines on 9/11
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Trump on war in Iran, Houthi advance in Yemen: ‘It’ll all work out’
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Majority of Michigan voters dislike Trump’s Canada tariffs, new poll finds
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Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom stake positions on AI regulation
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Head of Postal Service tells AP work has stopped on Trump-backed mail voting system
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Analysis: What Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting mean for the midterms
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Trump officials sending undocumented children to Texas sparks fears of mass deportation
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Early voting begins in midterms as cost of living and Iran war loom large
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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Donald Trump’s contentious Oval Office exchange with reporters in the Oval Offcie was dominated by questions, and tetchy answers, about his decision to punish three news outlets that were not allowed to be there: CNN, Politico and MS Now.
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Reminded that he tried to ban a CNN reporter from the White House in his first term, and lost in court, Trump said: “I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day”. In his comments, he made it plan that his real beef with the outlets was that their coverage of him was not sufficiently flattering. “I get I don’t get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox,” Trump said. “It’s sick, I mean, there’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories,” the president said. “Now, if they want to write them, that’s fine. But I don’t have to let them into my- into the people’s house.”
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At another stage in the chaotic news conference, Trump was asked about how his banning of the three outlets from the White House would work. “When you say ‘the ban’, which ban?” Trump asked. After an NBC News correspondent rephrased the question, Trump said: “Oh, the ban on the free press, right?”
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Trump’s threatened annexation of Greenland appears to be off the table, as the US president and the leaders of Denmark and Greenland announced that they expect to sign an Arctic security pact next week that might just reiterate the existing access the US has to Greenland through Nato.
Trump points to partisan, rightwing reporters as the kind of journalists he wants around him
Donald Trump’s contentious Oval Office exchange with reporters on Friday was dominated by questions, and tetchy answers, about his decision to punish three news outlets that were not there – CNN, Politico and MS Now – for their unflattering coverage of his performance as president by banning them not just from the room, but from the White House.
The impromptu half-hour news conference was also a demonstration of the extent to which the president has already exerted control over the way he is covered on live television by selecting which outlets are allowed in to the Oval Office, and who he calls on to ask him questions.
That dynamic was on display throughout the event, as Trump repeatedly hectored reporters from nonpartisan outlets who asked him challenging questions and called on reporters from partisan, rightwing outlets who helped him steer the conversation away from his attack on press freedom and back to attacks on Democrats, culture war issues and boasts about his record.
Trump clearly knew where the friendly faces in the room where, calling first on Daniel Baldwin of the far-right fringe cable channel One American News, who invited the president to criticize Democrats, and later moved away from being pressed on the media bans by Danny Kemp of AFP by calling on Willie Nelson of the rightwing outlet Salem Media. Nelson asked Trump to comment on the Lindsay Clancy trial and then invited him to riff on Hasan Piker, the left-wing streamer Republicans are trying to use to paint Democrats as extremists.
When reporters like Catherine Lucey of the Wall Street Journal tried to bring the subject back to the president’s assault on the first amendment, Trump was scathing.
“Freedom of the press is enshrined in the first amendment-”, Lucey began.
“Oh, thank you for telling … thank you for telling me that, appreciate it,” Trump cut in.
“Are you trying to intimidate the press from doing its job?” Lucey asked.
“No, no, no, no. I dislike dishonest press like you. I think you’re terrible,” Trump replied, before calling on a reporter for the conservative Washington Examiner. When she returned to the subject of the ban, reminding Trump that he “tried a similar ban against CNN, and it didn’t survive a court challenge” in his first term, Trump gave a rambling answer that resulted in a frank admission that he was simply peeved by negative coverage.
“I don’t get fair press,” he complained. “I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox.”
After scolding the NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell for supposedly just asking Joe Biden what his favorite flavor of ice cream was (which O’Donnell said she never did), Trump said in response to another question that the outlets he banned on Friday simply “never write a good story” about him.
“I won’t get a good story out of these people,” he added. Then, looking first in the direction of Baldwin, the One America News correspondent, and then at Nelson, of Salem Media, and pointing at each in turn Trump said: “From some of them I will. I’ll get one from him. I’ll get one from him.”
“I’ll get a few of them, but it’s sick. I mean, there’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories,” Trump said.
“Now, if they want to write them, that’s fine. But I don’t have to let them into my- into the people’s house.”
Press freedom groups sound the alarm: ‘The White House can’t be allowed to decide which journalists are able to cover the president’
Statements continue to roll in from press freedom groups on Donald Trump’s move on Friday to ban CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House for the grave crime of not producing sufficiently flattering coverage of him the president.
Here is some of what Seth Stern, chief of advocacy of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement:
It’s difficult to imagine a more blatant violation of the First Amendment than Trump banning news outlets from the People’s House for criticizing the government. It’s also hard to imagine a dumber move. The historically unpopular president has been retaliating against the press for years, but it hasn’t helped him. The press keeps exposing his corruption and his failures. These outrageous attacks only demonstrate how scared he is of an informed public.
“Someone needs to explain to President Trump how the First Amendment works,” Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation director at PEN America chimed in. “As we’ve seen time and time again, this administration’s hostility toward the press is never about the accuracy of news stories, but about its inability to withstand scrutiny of its actions. The White House can’t be allowed to decide which journalists are able to cover the president based on the content of their news coverage.”
Aaron Terr, the director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said:
When the White House opens its doors to the press, it must comply with the First Amendment. The president is as free as any other person to criticize media coverage. But he can’t ban outlets from the White House just because he doesn’t like their reporting or commentary. Press credentials aren’t a reward for loyalty to the government. A free, even adversarial, press is a sign of our country’s strength. The public deserves to hear about its government from independent voices, not just its leader’s loyalists and allies.
While the scope of the new security agreement announced on Friday by the leaders of the United States, Denmark and Greenland seems certain to fall far short of Donald Trump’s previously stated desire for “the acquisition of Greenland by the United States”, a Trump administration insider dropped a strong hint that the US side intends to present whatever the deal actually is as an American triumph.
After news of the agreement broke, Katie Miller, a former White House aide in the first Trump administration whose husband is Trump’s most influential adviser, posted a map of Greenland entirely covered in the American flag, with the caption: “ITS [sic] HAPPENING”.
Thousands rally outside the Kennedy Center in face of Trump demolition threats
David Smith
On Friday evening thousands of protesters gathered outside the Kennedy Center in view of the marble facade that remained concealed by scaffolding and tarpaulins.
The speakers included a drag queen while among the demonstrators were people in inflatable animal costumes and a man in a golden Trump mask with a crown and a sign that said: “Restore my name in gold you sycophants.” Another man wore a blue hat that said: “Make America intelligent again.”
Baby Trump balloons danced in the air against the setting sun. Protesters beat drums, chanted “hands off!” and waved signs including: “Keep your tiny hands off our Kennedy Center”; “You’re no Jack Kennedy”; “Donny you are no JFK!”; “Kennedy Center 4 ever”; “Our center not DJT’s”; “Hands off the arts”; and “Wicked starring DJT”.
Mollie Reilly
Speaking Friday at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, former president Barack Obama briefly reacted to Trump banning Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House due to their coverage of his administration.
“I’m trying to think what would have happened if I’d said, you know what Fox News, get out of here,” Obama said. “It’s unimaginable.”
Fox News aired relentless negative coverage of Obama’s two terms in office, regularly promoting the birther conspiracy and catering coverage to the fears of white conservatives, but always maintained a seat in the White House briefing room.
‘It just stinks – it’s corruption’: Utah Republican Senator John Curtis says of Russian oligarch paying for Donald Trump Jr’s wedding party
Senator John Curtis, a Utah Republican, said on Friday that Donald Trump Jr’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas being paid for, in part, by a Russian boxing official close to the Kremlin, “just stinks – it’s corruption”.
In a social media review of the week’s highs and lows, Curtis said: “inflation has worsened, I think we all have to admit that. Another low, believe this: a Russian oligarch paid for a lavish wedding afterparty for Donald Trump Jr, which, to me, it just stinks – it’s corruption.”
“I don’t like it,” Curtis added, before hinting that he might soon have more to say on the topic. “I want to be careful because I don’t want to just talk about this passively. You’ll hear more from me later on. This is a big deal.”
Trump to meet Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodríguez next week
Donald Trump plans to meet next week with Delcy Rodríguez, who became president after a US military raid in January captured then-leader Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.
Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters that Trump and Rodriguez will take part in what’s known as a “pull-aside” meeting – a more casual meeting than a formal bilateral sit-down – during the United Nations general assembly in New York City.
Trump will meet with the new UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, for the first time, according to Waltz, who as Trump’s national security adviser until he mistakenly added the editor of the Atlantic magazine to a private Signal group chat in which the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, briefed senior officials, including the vice-president, JD Vance, on planned strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Iran-backed rebels Yemeni fighters recently seized control of the Bab al-Mandab strait – the other major regional energy chokepoint after the strait of Hormuz.
Trump also plans to meet the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain, which are on the front lines of the war he started with Iran nearly seven months ago.
The first meeting between Trump and Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s vice-president, comes after the two countries announced an agreement last month to give the US a stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves.
White House Correspondents’ Association notes Trump himself called his ban on three news outlets a ‘ban on the free press’
In response to Donald Trump’s move to bar CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Jacqui Heinrich, who covers the president for Fox News, points out that Trump himself referred to his action as a “ban on the free press”.
Here is the full statement from Heinrich, on behalf of the organization that recently made the US president the featured speaker at its annual dinner celebrating press freedom, where he congratulated and then trashed reporters who covered his chaotic presidency:
The president said it plainly in the Oval Office, describing his own planned action as a “ban on the free press.”
The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.
This is about more than the rights of journalists. It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office.
The WHCA stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MSNOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs.
Robert Tait
Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation enabling sweeping sanctions on Russia aimed at pressing it into ending its war with Ukraine, and also giving him the power to impose additional tariffs on countries breaking the embargo.
The US president signed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law two days after it passed the House of Representatives in a bipartisan 262-159 vote, amid concerns the legislation gives him too much power.
The legislation imposes new sanctions on Russian political and military officials and foreign networks helping to supply Russia’s war machine and evade existing sanctions.
In addition, it targets Russia’s fleet of “shadow tankers”, which have allowed the country to continue to ship crude around the world despite existing sanctions on its energy exports.
But it also gives Trump wide leeway over its implementation, including which countries could face tariffs, and which tariff rates could be imposed. It also gives him sweeping discretion over whether sanctions provisions can be waived against certain countries.
Controversially, it allows Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on buyers of Russian energy, including China, and on other countries that help Moscow to evade sanctions.
The bill’s broad provisions were criticized by many Democrats, who complained that it gave Trump excessive authority to resort to tariffs, which he has already imposed on multiple countries despite a US supreme court ruling prohibiting him from doing so under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Trump and leaders of Denmark and Greenland announce security pact to be signed next week
Donald Trump’s threatened annexation of Greenland appears to be off the table, as the US president and the leaders of Denmark and Greenland announced on Friday that they expect to sign an Arctic security pact next week during the United Nations general assembly in New York City.
Trump cast the deal as a personal triumph, claiming on social media that the agreement “gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns”.
“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland,” Trump added without mentioning that the US already has a presence on the island, and the right to expand bases, through Nato.
Statements from Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, and the leader of Greenland’s government, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, posted online late Friday, emphasized that the agreement would fall far short of Trump’s stated desire for “the acquisition of Greenland by the United States”. The island is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Frederiksen said that what she called “a great agreement” for all three parties, “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination”.
Nielsen said it was “joyous” that the agreement “ensures and strengthens the security of Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the United States and the Western alliance”, suggesting that the deal might possibly just reiterate the existing US rights through Nato to use the island as a security base.
In chaotic news conference, Trump refers to barring CNN, Politico and MS Now as his ‘ban on the free press’
Near the end of a chaotic news conference in the Oval Office on Friday, when a reporter tried to bring Donald Trump back to the subject of his move to ban CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House, over unflattering coverage he referred to as “fake”, the president seemed to admit that what he is attempting to do is a violation of the freedom of the press enshrined in the US constitution.
“On the ban, what does that mean in practice?” the reporter asked. “Are you taking away their badges? Are you banning them from the pool? What does this actually mean?”
“When you say ‘the ban’, which ban?” Trump replied. “Do you know how many bans I’m involved in? I’ve got more bans going than any human being!”
“On the three news outlets, sir, what does that mean in practice?” the reporter clarified.
Looking genuinely confused, Trump said: “Wh- I still don’t know what she’s”, before turning for help to those around him.
NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell then rephrased the question, asking: “What do you envision the bans would look like on the media outlets?” Trump said: “Oh, the ban on the free press, right?”
“Uh”, Trump said, “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. And if they could straighten themselves out, you know, if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it. Look, they’re very dishonest people. They write in a very dishonest way.”
He then went on to give an inaccurate account of the settlements he extracted from ABC News and CBS News after suing them over coverage he objected to, and, not for the first time, falsely claimed that the BBC documentary on the January 6 2021 Capitol riot he has sued the corporation over used technology to put words in his mouth that he never actually said. “They put horrible fighting words into my mouth,” Trump claimed, incorrectly. “BBC actually changed my language and they put words in my mouth.”
“We’ll be suing these people too,” he added, in apparent reference to the three outlets he banned from the White House on Friday.
Here is a statement from Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, on Donald Trump’s move to bar CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House for unflattering coverage of his work as president:
The First Amendment prohibits the president from punishing journalists because he doesn’t like their coverage, just as it prohibits him from punishing universities because he doesn’t like the courses they offer, or from punishing law firms because he doesn’t like the clients they represent. With so many courts having ruled against him on exactly this point, you’d think President Trump would have learned this lesson by now. If President Trump means to expel these news organizations from the White House press pool, his action is doubly unconstitutional because the press pool is a ‘public forum’ under the First Amendment, which means the president can’t exclude journalists from it on the basis of their viewpoints.
“Donald Trump just did what dictators throughout history have done,” Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate Democrats posted in response to Trump’s move to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.
Directly addressing Trump on social media, Schumer added: “this is a democracy. You will not be able to manipulate the news or hide the truth.”
Trump says that his son paid back Kremlin-linked Russian who covered wedding party costs
Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office on Friday if it was appropriate for Umar Kremlev, a Russian linked to the Kremlin, to have paid for part of Donald Trump Jr’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas, Donald Trump said “it’s totally allowed. But as I understand it, he paid him back.”
“A person that he knows pretty, I guess a friend of his, gave him a wedding party. That’s very common, I’ve heard of many people giving wedding parties,” Trump added.
When the reporter seemed to suggest that a Putin-connected boxing official was not just a routine friend to make such a gift, Trump replied: “Well, I don’t know, maybe he didn’t do a background check. But I’ve given wedding parties to numerous people.”
“With all of that being said, I understand that Don’s paid him back,” Trump added.
Trump defends banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from White House: ‘I don’t think a court should allow fake news’
At an Oval Office event to promote changes he says he’s making to the US healthcare system, including pressing for lower drug prices and reducing vaccine doses for children, Donald Trump defended his decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.
Reminded by the NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell, a past president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, that “every president takes an oath to uphold the constitution, which includes the first amendment,” the president said, that he does, “much more so than you,” before adding: “you get so tired of reading and seeing fake news.”
“There may be others to join them,” Trump warned, before hinting a short time later that the New York Times and the Washington Post are on his list.
“Our country has to have honest news,” the president said.
“You need a free press,” Trump added. “You need a fair press and an honest press.”
When another reporter reminded Trump that he had lost in court in 2018 when he tried to ban CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House, Trump tried to rewrite history by claiming that “we didn’t have to take it too far because the reporter that you’re talking about discredited himself.” In fact, after a judge ordered the White House to restore Acosta’s access, the first Trump administration relented immediately.
“I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” Trump went on. “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they’re going to write false stories all the time,” he insisted, apparently failing to understand a fundamental part of the US constitution.
Trump then went on to reveal that what he is mainly upset about is the tenor of coverage of him not being positive enough from non-partisan media outlets, while praising partisan, rightwing outlets.
“I get I don’t get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox,” Trump said. “But what I do ask is just a semblance of truth.”
