President Donald Trump melted down after his attempt to ban the media backfired, and his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was not covered the way he wanted.
The president, 80, took to Truth Social to complain after a federal judge temporarily blocked his ban, leaving the White House scrambling to give reporters access.
“CNN and MSDNC, to show you how fake they are, today refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years, the arrival at the White House of the Highly Respected President of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madam Peng,” Trump wrote.
What he left out is that he tried to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, which led all the major TV networks to band together in protest by not providing video for the White House TV pool.
While Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order overnight against the ban for two weeks as the legal battle continues, banned journalists were denied access Thursday morning while the administration scrambled to return access hours after the order came down.
Trump has repeatedly shown he did not quite grasp the repercussions since he announced the ban on Friday. Some of the video lacks audio; individual conservative platforms had their own cameras at his events.
The events he wanted covered, like the high-stakes meeting with Xi, also went without full coverage as networks instead reported on the ban while their journalists worked to get back on the grounds.
“The event was magnificent—Actually made for Television but because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP ’; they refused to be there,” Trump claimed.
When some crews showed up at the White House Thursday morning after Kelly ordered their hard passes reinstated just after midnight, the passes still hadn’t been reactivated, and security even confiscated some.
The passes were later gathered and given back to reporters hours later as the news organizations’ lawyers called for an emergency hearing.
The White House’s botched response to getting journalists back on the premises completely overshadowed Trump’s elaborate welcome ceremony for Xi, which no major network broadcast Thursday.
News organizations instead worked to determine whether the administration would comply with the order and allow banned networks to provide pool coverage for future events.
The court ordered the administration to immediately reinstate the hard passes for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico that were revoked, and Kelly also indicated in his order that the organizations would likely succeed in their case.
The temporary restraining order against Trump’s ban remains in place for two weeks as the legal battle continues.
