Trump Announces Ban on CNN, Politico, MSNBC From White House

President Donald Trump announced Friday that CNN, Politico and MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, would be barred immediately from the White House over what he called repeated fiction and lies in their coverage. The move extends a pattern of clashes that began after his return to office in January 2025, including the administration’s February decision to assume control of the press pool and its exclusion of Associated Press reporters from limited-access spaces over the term “Gulf of Mexico.”

Trump posted on Truth Social that media outlets should not be permitted to report fiction and lies about the president or the United States, adding that other outlets would follow. In later remarks he named The New York Times and The Washington Post as additional examples of fake news. He described the action as cumulative frustration rather than a response to any single story and acknowledged that legal challenges were likely.

CNN called any implemented ban an illegal assault on constitutionally protected reporting and said its team would continue to cover the White House. Politico stated it would defend its First Amendment rights and rejected a separate Trump claim that it had received government subsidies. MS NOW offered no immediate comment. Reporters from CNN and Politico remained on White House grounds after the announcement, and a CNN crew continued to travel with Vice President JD Vance.

The White House Correspondents’ Association said the action singled out journalists for doing their jobs and limited the public’s right to an independent account of presidential activities. Legal groups including the Knight First Amendment Institute, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Freedom of the Press Foundation described the proposed exclusion as viewpoint discrimination that courts have previously rejected. Past precedent includes a 2018 court order restoring CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s credentials after an earlier revocation.

It remains unclear how the announced restrictions would be enforced or whether they would affect pool coverage, for which CNN is one of five designated U.S. outlets. The administration has not identified specific disputed stories, and no formal credential revocations have been documented as of the announcement.