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Provenance manifest: White House bans CNN, MS Now and Politico

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Header

1In nine days, a ban on three news organisations led to a lawsuit, a halt to the TV networks’ pool coverage of the president, a court order and a fresh exclusion. This is what happened, in order.

In short

2In short

3On Friday 18 September, Donald Trump announced that he was banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House over their coverage.

4The three sued.

5A 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.

6Even after the ruling, CNN and MS Now journalists were kept out of a state dinner that evening,

7and CNN was then blocked from Air Force One.

8The White House argued the ban was needed for national security;

9the judge was sceptical that this was the real motive.

Diagram: nine days, day by day

10The White House

11The outlets and the court

12The TV networks

13Ban announced

14Trump announces the ban on Truth Social

15Barred

16Badges disabled and taken

17Barred

18Barred

19CNN kept from Monday’s pool duty

20The three outlets sue

21Pool stops filming the president

22Barred

23Letters give formal notice

24Barred

25Hearing before Judge Kelly

26Let in at midday

27Let in at midday

28CNN and MS Now reporters kept out of state dinner

29Judge orders access restored for 14 days

30No network video of Xi summit

31CNN access restored

32Pool resumes, with CBS

33CNN off the plane

34CNN left off Air Force One

35TV pool paused

36Pool still paused on Thursday

37Nine days, day by day

38Each box is one development. Select it to jump to the full account below. The top row shows whether the three outlets could get into the White House.

39Barred from the building

40Partly restored or new exclusion

41Access confirmed restored

42TV pool not filming

What happened, in order

43What happened, in order

44On 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.”

45That 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.”

46Friday 18 September

47The ban

48Journalists from MS Now and CNN tried to enter the White House and were told their badges had been disabled. The badges were taken.

49Saturday 19 September

50Badges switched off

51The 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.

52CNN 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.

53In 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.

54Responding 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.”

55Monday 21 September

56The lawsuit, and the cameras stop

57Letters 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.

58Tuesday 22 September

59Formal notice, after the fact

60Earlier 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.

61Wednesday 23 September

62In court

63Early 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.

64Lawyers 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.

65The journalists were not let in until midday.

66That 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.

67Thursday 24 September

68A ruling, then a closed door

69The 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.

70Friday 25 September

71Cameras back on

72The 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.

73Saturday 26 September

74Off the plane

Who’s who, and where they stand

75Who’s who, and where they stand

76Says 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.”

77Donald Trump

78US president

79Argue the ban protects national security, pointing to articles that relied on non-public information.

80The White House and justice department

81Defending the ban

82Say 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”.

83CNN, MS Now and Politico

84Suing to get back in

85Jacqui 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.”

86The five pool networks, CNN among them: “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

87The rest of the press

88Correspondents and TV networks

89Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute: “The first amendment prohibits the president from punishing journalists because he doesn’t like their coverage.”

90Press freedom advocates

91Backing the outlets

Not the first time

92Not the first time

93The 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.

94Since 2025 the White House, not the correspondents’ association, has chosen which outlets join the pool each day.

95But 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.

Opinion: should the press walk out?

96Should the press walk out?

97Opinion

98Margaret Sullivan, Guardian US columnist

99Sullivan argues that suing is right but not enough. She wants the biggest newspapers and TV networks to boycott the White House briefing room until their colleagues get their credentials back, and says reporters can do the job from outside the building.

100“And principle should trump access.”

101This is the only opinion piece in the Storyline. It has no piece arguing against a boycott.

What happens next

102What happens next

103The judge’s order runs for 14 days, and a hearing on a preliminary injunction is due within that time.

104Trump has said the White House would appeal any ruling against it,

105and on the day of the ban he said more outlets might follow: “There may be others to join them.”

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