Donald Trump is taking his fight with the press to another level.
The president announced Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned from the White House, blaming what he called their “FAKE NEWS” coverage of his administration.
And he warned that they may not be the last.
“Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, announcing that the ban would take effect “immediately.” He accused the three outlets of repeatedly reporting what he described as “FICTION and LIES” about him, his administration and the United States.
Exactly how the ban will work, however, wasn’t immediately clear.
Trump did not specify whether reporters would lose their credentials, be excluded from White House briefings and presidential events, or be barred from the building entirely. And despite Trump’s announcement, journalists from the three organizations were still working at the White House Friday afternoon.
Trump later defended the decision during an Oval Office event.
“I don’t get fair press,” he told reporters, saying he gets favorable coverage from Breitbart and “a little bit from Fox.”
What he wanted, Trump said, was “just a semblance of truth.”
When a reporter reminded him that presidents take an oath to uphold the Constitution, including the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and the press, Trump returned to his familiar complaint about what he considers “fake news.”
“I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” Trump said. “I think that somebody has a right to keep them away if they’re going to write false stories all the time.”
Trump was also asked what his media ban would actually look like.
At one point, he appeared to misunderstand the question.
“When you say ‘the ban,’ which ban?” Trump asked. “Do you know how many bans I’m involved in?”
The reporter tried again.
Trump responded: “Oh, the ban on the free press, right?”
Trump did not point to one particular article as the reason for Friday’s decision. Instead, he described it as the result of “cumulative stories over the last few years.”
“There may be others to join them,” he said, according to The Guardian.
The announcement came as several recent reports from major news organizations have challenged the administration’s account of events.
The Washington Post reported that more U.S. service members have died in the war with Iran than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed.
CNN reported on an intelligence document concerning a Chinese ship in the Middle East that was generated with the help of artificial intelligence and was described as entirely false.
And Politico reported on a congressional investigation after sensitive F-35 fighter-jet technology unexpectedly reached Hong Kong, potentially providing China with access to information about the aircraft.
Trump said the ban was not specifically about those reports.
Instead, he said his decision reflected his broader dissatisfaction with the outlets’ coverage.
CNN said it stands behind its White House team and its reporting.
“We have a right under the US constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government,” a CNN spokesperson said, adding that the network would defend its First Amendment rights if the ban were implemented.
Politico similarly said its journalists would continue covering the White House and that it would defend its First Amendment rights.
The White House Correspondents’ Association also said it stood behind the journalists being singled out.
“This is about more than the rights of journalists,” WHCA president Jacqui Heinrich said. “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 announcement is likely to trigger another legal battle over presidential control of press access.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, said the White House press pool is a public forum protected by the First Amendment and argued that excluding journalists because of their viewpoints would be unconstitutional.
Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation similarly argued that banning news organizations from the White House because of their coverage raises serious First Amendment concerns.
Those are legal and advocacy assessments, however, and the precise constitutional questions will depend in part on how the administration attempts to enforce Trump’s announcement.
This is not Trump’s first fight over access for news organizations.
In 2025, his administration restricted Associated Press journalists from certain presidential events after the AP continued using “Gulf of Mexico” rather than Trump’s preferred “Gulf of America.” The AP sued, arguing that the restrictions violated its First Amendment rights. A federal judge subsequently ordered the White House to restore AP access to presidential spaces, although litigation over access to smaller restricted areas continued.
The Trump administration has also changed how the presidential press pool is organized, moving control of pool access away from the traditional role of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon faced its own confrontation with news organizations over a policy restricting journalists’ ability to gather and report certain sensitive information.
Now CNN, MS NOW and Politico have been added to the administration’s latest battle with the press.
