Donald Trump has expanded his ban on CNN by kicking the network out of the White House press pool that takes turns covering the president.
Trump, 80, announced Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred from the White House “effective immediately,” accusing the outlets of producing unfavorable coverage. The order reportedly blindsided senior administration officials and came while Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was out of town.
CNN was due Monday to take its regular turn as the television pool network and travel with Trump to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. But the White House removed it from the assignment, CNN reported.
The move pushes Trump’s fight with the network to another level, beyond barring its individual journalists from the White House grounds.
Traditionally, the big networks—ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News—have shared and rotated responsibility for filming events when space around the president is limited. The footage is then made available to the other broadcasters and the wider media.
The White House’s Sunday evening schedule did not name a primary television pool network for Monday, CNN reported. Hearst was named as the secondary crew in Washington, while pro-Trump network Real America’s Voice received the secondary assignment for Trump’s New York trip.
Trump celebrated the crackdown Monday morning, posting on Truth Social: “Trump bans CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from White House.”
The three organizations had already seen reporters turned away from the White House on Saturday. CNN said Saturday that the restrictions amounted to “an illegal assault” on its constitutional rights and vowed to continue covering the administration.
Its chief media analyst Brian Stelter said the network had retained First Amendment attorney Ted Boutrous in preparation for a potential lawsuit. Boutrous successfully represented CNN in 2018 in overturning an attempt by the first Trump administration to revoke then-White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s credentials.
CNN told the Daily Beast in a statement that its “mission to report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism.”
It added: “We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hindrance or interference from the government and this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right.”
The White House referred the Beast to Trump’s Truth Social comments.
