White House drops CNN from Air Force One amid media access row
The White House left CNN off Air Force One for President Donald Trump's trip on Saturday to a college football game in Tennessee, in the latest restriction on media access during an ongoing dispute with First Amendment implications. CNN, which is part of the rotating US network video pool that records and shares video of the president, said it had been scheduled to travel on the plane, but White House guidance issued on Friday night named conservative outlet Real America's Voice instead.
The move came after journalists from CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, returned to the White House complex with TV cameras after a judge temporarily blocked a ban on the three organisations. US District Judge Timothy Kelly's overnight ruling early Thursday restored access through their hard passes to the White House grounds, but did not directly deal with pool duties or Air Force One access.
The seat on the flight had long been reserved for a member of the US network video pool, and Real America's Voice is not part of that group. The White House did not respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment on the decision, while CNN declined to comment. A pool report on Saturday morning said there was "no TV pool" for the trip.
On Saturday morning, Trump weighed in on the wider issue in a social media post, writing: "FAKE NEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!! IT HAS GONE ON FAR TOO LONG, AT A TREMENDOUS COST TO OUR COUNTRY."
Theodore Boutrous Jr., a lawyer for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, did not immediately respond to an email or phone call seeking comment on Friday night. Earlier in the day, speaking on "The Lead with Jake Tapper", Boutrous said the plaintiffs believed the recent court ruling also covered pool access.
For a time on Friday, the US network video pool at the White House was operating again for the first time since Trump barred the three outlets. At noon on CNN, viewers could see Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping touring the National Archives along with Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Xi's wife. The lower-screen caption read: "Trump and China's Xi Visit National Archives." It was a routine state visit report, but CNN had not shown live video of Trump for several days. "As of now, all systems are go," a person familiar with the pool said on condition of anonymity because the situation was changing.
The TV pool includes five major US broadcast outlets. When the White House banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the grounds, the other four pool providers refused to take part in a show of solidarity. Earlier on Friday, CNN did not comment directly and instead pointed to its editorial coverage. It did the same on Saturday. Brian Stelter, the network's media analyst, wrote on X on Friday that CNN had a pool assignment at the National Archives event and that the White House had approved the network's credentials.
Throughout his second term, Trump has increasingly targeted media organisations whose coverage has irritated him, including through administrative or legal action. Early last year, he barred AP reporters from White House events because the news agency did not follow his executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America". AP's style guidance says the new name should be acknowledged when relevant. That case is now on appeal after a federal district judge ruled in AP's favour.
The press pool was set up decades ago by the White House Correspondents' Association, a group of journalists who cover the president, to ensure that a rotating team always travels with him. The pool shares on-the-ground reports and images with the wider press corps and is meant to help hold the US president accountable on behalf of the public. The association did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The latest dispute left CNN off Air Force One even after a court ruling restored its ground access, underlining the continuing uncertainty over pool coverage, White House entry and media access around Trump's presidency.
