White House bans CNN, MS Now and Politico

In short

1. On Friday 18 September, Donald Trump announced that he was banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House over their coverage.1
2. The three sued.2 A federal judge ordered the White House to let them back in for 14 days, saying their passes had probably been taken away without due process.3
3. Even after the ruling, CNN and MS Now journalists were kept out of a state dinner that evening,3 and CNN was then blocked from Air Force One.5
4. The White House argued the ban was needed for national security; the judge was sceptical that this was the real motive.3

What happened, in order

1. Friday18 Sept

   The ban

   On Truth Social, Trump said he was expelling the three outlets “effective immediately” over their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” He added: “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”1

   That day CNN had reported that an “entirely false” intelligence report about a Chinese ship, made with the help of AI, had “almost started a war”. Trump said the ban was unrelated to that day’s reporting: “It’s really just cumulative stories over the last few years.”1

2. Saturday19 Sept

   Badges switched off

   Journalists from MS Now and CNN tried to enter the White House and were told their badges had been disabled. The badges were taken.2

3. Monday21 Sept

   The lawsuit, and the cameras stop

   The three sued in the federal court in Washington DC and asked for an order lifting the ban while the case goes on. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said.2

   CNN was due to film the president that day for the rest of the media, as the TV pooler. The White House removed it from the pool.2 In solidarity, the other pool networks (NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News) stopped filming White House events, leaving an effective TV blackout of the president during the UN general assembly.4

   Responding to news of the lawsuit, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America.”2

4. Tuesday22 Sept

   Formal notice, after the fact

   Letters to each outlet accused them of behaviour that broke White House standards, “including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information”. They gave the outlets until 5pm on Friday to contest the ban.3

5. Wednesday23 Sept

   In court

   Earlier in the week, in a court filing, justice department lawyers had argued the ban was needed for national security. At a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Timothy Kelly appeared sceptical of the White House’s case.3

6. Thursday24 Sept

   A ruling, then a closed door

   Early in the morning, Kelly ordered access restored for 14 days. He found the outlets were likely to show their passes had been revoked without due process, and was “skeptical … that defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation” for the ban.3

   Lawyers for the outlets told the judge their journalists were turned away that morning. The White House’s director of press operations said in a sworn statement that badges were reactivated as of 9.07am.3 The journalists were not let in until midday.5 That evening, CNN and MS Now journalists were kept out of the state dinner for China’s president, Xi Jinping. CNN reported that it was allowed only a photojournalist and an audio technician, not its reporter and producer.3

7. Friday25 Sept

   Cameras back on

   The TV pool resumed, with CBS as the day’s pooler. “CNN’s access to the White House has been restored, and the TV pool appears to be functioning as normal,” the CNN anchor Pamela Brown told viewers.4

8. Saturday26 Sept

   Off the plane

   The White House blocked CNN from Saturday’s Air Force One flight with Trump to a college football game in Tennessee, leaving it off the schedule guidance sent to reporters. The White House did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.5

Who’s who, and where they stand

• Donald Trump

  US president

  Says the outlets write “FICTION and LIES”. “I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day.”1

• The White House and justice department

  Defending the ban

  Argue the ban protects national security, pointing to articles that relied on non-public information.3

• CNN, MS Now and Politico

  Suing to get back in

  Say they are being punished for what they report, and had no chance to contest the ban before their passes were revoked. Their lawsuit says “this ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment”.2

• The rest of the press

  Correspondents and TV networks

  Jacqui Heinrich, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association: “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.”1 The five pool networks, CNN among them: “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”2

• Press freedom advocates

  Backing the outlets

  Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute: “The first amendment prohibits the president from punishing journalists because he doesn’t like their coverage.”1

Not the first time

The Associated Press was banned from Oval Office and Air Force One pool events after it kept using “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America”. It sued, and that case is still going.1 Since 2025 the White House, not the correspondents’ association, has chosen which outlets join the pool each day.5 But the courts have sided with reporters before: in Trump’s first term, legal challenges won back the press badges of Jim Acosta, then of CNN, and Brian Karem, then of Playboy.2

Should the press walk out?

This is the only opinion piece in the Storyline. It has no piece arguing against a boycott.

What happens next

The judge’s order runs for 14 days, and a hearing on a preliminary injunction is due within that time. Trump has said the White House would appeal any ruling against it,3 and on the day of the ban he said more outlets might follow: “There may be others to join them.”1