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In response to President Donald Trump’s ban on certain media outlets from covering the White House, the Trump administration is now facing a lawsuit as well as a refusal by other TV networks to provide TV pool coverage of the president’s activities on Monday.
President Donald Trump announced his decision to ban CNN, Politico and MS NOW Friday on Truth Social, citing what he said was “their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”
The move caught a number of White House aides off-guard. Among the multiple high-level current and former White House staff NBC News has spoken to, not one was aware ahead of time of Trump’s plan to ban three major news organizations from White House grounds. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was not at the White House on Friday when the ban was announced, according to a person familiar with the matter, possibly contributing to some of the confusion among staff.
In a joint statement on social media, the three outlets said they notified the administration Monday that they were filing a lawsuit “to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the statement continued. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
Reached for comment on the lawsuit, the White House press office directed NBC News to Trump’s Truth Social post defending the move Monday morning. In the post, the president called the ban “an assault” on the news media, which he claimed is “a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
CNN was scheduled to provide pool coverage for Trump on Monday but was barred from doing so by the White House. Media outlets that are part of the pool system take turns providing the camera and crew to film the president’s events for use by journalists around the world.
The other networks declined to step in and replace CNN’s coverage, according to the organizations in the TV network pool, meaning there will be no pooled TV coverage of the president’s activities. Print and radio pools are still in place, and TV pools for other administration events will continue. CNN, for example, will provide pool coverage of Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday.
The five members of the TV pool — NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News — issued a joint statement Monday morning in response to the ban, saying, “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
The networks are all part of a pool system that allows outlets to share reporting and video feeds when space is limited. The system has been recognized by administrations from both parties for decades, and the coverage is used by pool members and subscribers, which includes outlets like Newsmax, One America News Network, C-SPAN and international outlets.
The lawsuit from CNN, Politico and MS NOW argues that the president’s move violated the defendants’ due process rights and First Amendment protections for newsgathering and speech. The lawsuit also alleges that the ban violates the First Amendment because the outlets are illegally blocked from a nonpublic forum.
The 27-page filing said that Trump “was expressly clear about his viewpoint discriminatory motive” and called on a D.C. district court judge to block the ban.
“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the lawsuit said.
Vice President JD Vance defended the president, telling reporters that Trump was “not banning media outlets.” Trump’s original social media post, though, said he was “banning” the outlets. The vice president also said that Trump’s announcement meant that the administration was not providing the outlets with “special access” if they “engage in what is effectively propaganda.”
The lawsuit was filed by the three outlets, as well as White House reporters Akayla Gardner of MS NOW, Cheyenne Haslett of Politico and Betsy Klein of CNN. The lawsuit names Trump, Communications Director Steven Cheung, Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Wiles as defendants.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed by Trump in 2017. After filing the lawsuit, the outlets’ attorneys filed a motion asking Kelly to issue a temporary restraining order to block the enforcement of the ban and restore reporters’ hard passes, which allow them to access White House grounds.
In 2018, Kelly oversaw a similar case when the White House removed press credentials for CNN’s Jim Acosta, then the network’s chief White House correspondent, after a contentious press conference. Kelly ordered the Trump administration to temporarily return Acosta’s press pass and, days later, the administration relented, and notified Acosta they’d restore his hard pass permanently.
Trump has targeted others journalists and outlets he dislikes, but the latest ban is the most extreme instance so far of the president’s push to hinder press access.
Secret Service members turned away reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds and revoked their passes Saturday, prompting backlash from First Amendment experts and the White House Correspondents’ Association, which called the move unconstitutional. CNN’s and MS NOW’s workspaces in the White House sat empty following their access being withdrawn.
The publications have long been part of the White House press pool, a group of media outlets that cover the president. The pool, which is managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association, assigns a small number of reporters each day to cover the president on behalf of the full press corps. The assigned outlet rotates. CNN, now banned, was assigned to pool duty Monday, providing broadcast coverage meant to be shared with all members of the press corps.
On Sunday night, the White House sent out its daily media guidance, which did not have any major broadcast outlet included for Monday’s pool duties.
Trump has attempted to ban outlets from government spaces before. He barred The Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One and some events after it declined to call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump’s preferred name, the Gulf of America. The AP sued the administration, and the case is ongoing.
Megan Brand is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Raquel Coronell Uribe is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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