Donald Trump spent Friday banning CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO from the White House. Less than 48 hours later, his Secretary of State was happily partying with them in New York.
Days after the president issued an extraordinary ban on the media outlets because he didn’t like their coverage, Marco Rubio was spotted courting a room full of journalists from the very organizations Trump had just kicked out.
The event took place on Sunday night at a press reception at the Kimberly Hotel in Manhattan to kick off the high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly.
Hosted by Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson, the guest list was a who’s who of Washington and New York media: POLITICO’s Dasha Burns, CNN’s Kylie Atwood, former MS NOW host Andrea Mitchell, New York Times correspondents Tyler Pager and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, as well as ABC’s Jonathan Karl, NBC’s Kristen Welker and Fox News stars Martha MacCallum, Harris Faulkner and Brian Kilmeade.
According to Politico, Rubio delivered off-the-cuff remarks and mingled with guests at the midtown Manhattan event, alongside other Trump officials including U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz and Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau.
On Monday morning, Rubio also marked the start of UN General Assembly week by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange alongside State Department officials with CNN as the TV pooler.
The events took place against a backdrop of growing tensions between the president and the press, after Trump banned the three outlets on Friday and denied them access to the White House grounds first thing Saturday morning.
The move even caught members of the administration off guard, with some insiders telling the Daily Beast they were not aware of the president’s plans until he announced the ban on Truth Social on Friday afternoon.
But the outlets fired back on Monday, filing a lawsuit arguing that the administration’s move violates the First and Fifth Amendments.
In a major escalation, the five major TV networks—CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and even the Trump-friendly Fox News—also joined forces on Monday to suspend White House pool duties and boycott the 80-year-old.
The move leaves Trump without a TV crew from any of the major networks as he heads to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday to meet with world leaders and deliver a speech on Tuesday, ahead of a much-anticipated state visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping later this week.
“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President. This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place,” said an email to TV pool subscribers.
The lawsuit challenging Trump’s ban uses the president’s own words as evidence that the ban was retaliation for coverage he disliked, not a legitimate security or logistical decision.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” CNN, POLITICO and MS NOW said in a statement.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
Trump admitted, for instance, that his ban was based on “cumulative stories” that he didn’t like.
“They purposely write negative news,” he complained.
“If they want to write them, that’s fine, but I don’t have to let them into my,” he added before correcting himself, “into the People’s House.”
The confrontation comes as Trump faces record-low approval ratings ahead of the midterm elections, thanks in large part to soaring costs due to policy decisions such as tariffs and the war in Iran.
Trump responded to the lawsuit on Monday with a wild Truth Social post, declaring: “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.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Rubio and the Department of State for comment.
