President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is expelling MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House for their coverage of him.
President Trump, who has frequently accused mainstream media of writing “fake news,” said in a post on Truth Social that such media “should not be able to constantly write and report fiction and lies.”
He did not reveal the specific details of the report. But he added, “Other fake news outlets will likely follow suit.”
Late Friday afternoon, President Trump said in the Oval Office that he was imposing the ban in response to “cumulative reporting” by three news organizations.
“It’s disgusting,” he said.
Trump, whose White House attempted to suspend a CNN reporter’s press pass in 2018 and is currently in litigation over an attempted ban on an Associated Press reporter, said the effort to ban more news organizations is worthwhile even if it doesn’t hold up in court.
“I think it’s a good thing to point out, whether it’s here to stay or not,” Trump said.
President Trump has long targeted news organizations and individual journalists over what he claims is unfair reporting. He has encouraged his supporters at political rallies to boo and jeer reporters in the room, and regularly insults journalists by name and in personal terms on social media.
But President Trump’s open hostility to critical reporting has reached new heights with the White House’s attempts to block access to unfavorable news outlets.
There may also be legal challenges over violations of the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press.
CNN said in a statement late Friday defending the White House team: “We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to report without obstruction or interference from the government.”
“The ban threatened by President Trump, if enforced, would constitute an unlawful attack on fundamental rights protected by the Constitution,” CNN said.
MS NOW has no immediate comment. CNBC has reached out to Politico.
Arthur Spitzer, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told CNBC that the group believes Trump’s posts are unconstitutional.
“Obviously he’s discriminating against them because he doesn’t like the way they report the news, and the government shouldn’t be doing that,” Spitzer said of President Trump. “Certainly, our view is that the president cannot control, or attempt to control, the news by banning the press from official events because he doesn’t like the way the news is being reported about him.”
Mr. Spitzer is representing the ACLU in an ongoing lawsuit related to President Trump’s ban on AP reporters from spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One.
Trump’s decision to call the Gulf of Mexico by its centuries-old name despite his efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” led Trump to seek to ban telegraph transmission to and from these locations.
A federal judge ruled in April 2025 that President Trump’s actions against the Associated Press were “in violation of the First Amendment.” An appeal against this decision is still pending.
Asked for comment on Trump’s Friday post, the White House referred CNBC to the president’s latest comments from the Oval Office.
Weijia Jiang, who served as president of the White House Correspondents Association until July, responded to Friday’s post by citing the First Amendment.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or respecting the freedom of speech or the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” the amendment states.
The current president of the Correspondents Association, Jackie Heinrich, a senior White House correspondent for Fox News, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Disclosure: CNBC and MS NOW are divisions of Versant Media.
