The Trump administration is taking gloating to a new level, installing a framed and signed document trolling the Associated Press in the White House press briefing room. The new wall decor is the first page of a June 6 appeals court decision that favored Trump in his battle with the AP, allowing him to continue barring AP journalists from certain events amid a pending lawsuit from the news organization. Trump’s signature is scribbled across the document in his trademark Sharpie. He celebrated the decision at the time as a “Big WIN.” Since February, the AP’s access to events in the Oval Office and Air Force One has been limited by the White House after it refused to align its copy rules with Trump’s order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Tuesday that it would keep in place the earlier decision. Though the White House has taken a victory lap, the legal battle is far from over. The appeals court will weigh the merits of the case this fall. An AP spokesperson said, “We are disappointed by today’s procedural decision but remain focused on the strong district court opinion in support of free speech as we have our case heard.”
