U.S. President Donald Trump pauses to speak to members of the media during his departure on the South Lawn of the White House on October 22, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
President Donald Trump was barred from the White House in September, but a federal judge’s order only restored most of his access, amending his lawsuit Wednesday to restore full access to the Oval Office and other reporters on Air Force One to enter the press pool.
The amended civil complaint against Trump alleges that since a judge ordered the White House to allow reporters from MS NOW, CNN and Politico into the White House, the White House has blocked those media outlets from implementing a pool function that they have had for years.
Journalists regularly serve as an important source of information for the public about what the president is doing and saying. In a pool assignment, a journalist agrees to share information and images obtained while serving as a pool representative with other news organizations.
The amended complaint sets the stage for a legal battle over whether the president can block access to individual media outlets and reporters from areas accessible to other journalists in the White House because of his feelings about the media’s reporting.
“Despite two court orders blocking enforcement of the president’s unconstitutional ban on CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, the White House continues to violate the First Amendment and due process by excluding these news organizations from the Oval Office and Air Force One, the very places where the president interacts with them most often,” the news organization’s attorney, Ted Boutras Jr., said in a statement Wednesday.
“These exclusions are intended to punish and chill coverage of an administration the president doesn’t like, making it difficult for news organizations to cover some of the most important events in the world for the benefit of the American people,” Bootles said.
The amended complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that President Trump’s original ban and “the White House’s continued exclusion of Plaintiffs from certain[areas]constitutes unlawful retaliation for activity protected by the First Amendment.”
These practices “brazenly discriminate” against news organizations “based on their perceived editorial viewpoints. The White House has explicitly excluded CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO because the President dislikes their coverage,” the complaint says.
Judge Tim Kelly previously issued an order restoring access to the outlet, but the White House did not request that the outlet’s access to the Oval Office or Air Force One be restored.
The amended complaint notes that since his second term began in January 2025, President Trump has held 121 press events on board Air Force One or on the tarmac outside the presidential plane, and 138 events in the Oval Office, “during which he answered more than 4,700 questions from reporters.”
“To be clear, Plaintiffs are not claiming unrestricted access to the Oval Office or to travel aboard Air Force One,” the new complaint says.
“However, if the White House opens these spaces to selected journalists for interviews and reporting, the White House may not be able to exclude plaintiffs because they dislike their coverage.”
Reporters report from Pebble Beach, a standing room area for media members on the North Lawn of the White House on Thursday, September 24, 2026, in Washington, DC, USA.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“Since President Trump announced the ban on September 18, the White House has repeatedly prohibited CNN from serving as Air Force One’s designated television network puller, a role CNN has performed for more than 40 years,” the amended complaint states.
MS NOW has not participated in the secondary TV pool since that date, and the White House has barred Politico from “two scheduled out-of-town print pool missions aboard Air Force One,” the complaint says.
“Defendants have not provided any formal explanation for these exclusions,” the amended complaint states.
“With respect to information and belief, these exclusions reflect an unstated policy to implement discriminatory and retaliatory prohibitions ‘to the extent possible’ reflecting the President’s views,” the complaint states.
“In fact, the President has made it clear that he intends to limit access to the Oval Office to media outlets that report favorably on him, declaring hours after this lawsuit was filed that ‘no publication that writes anything but negative…should be allowed access to the most important office anywhere in the world,'” the complaint states.
The lawsuit notes that after Kelly issued a preliminary injunction against Trump’s ban in mid-October, “the White House issued a statement declaring that what it considered ‘fake news’ had no claim to status in the Oval Office.”
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One for Alaska, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call Inc. | Getty Images
The amended complaint says the limited ban on access to the pool violates the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“CNN, MS NOW, POLITICO, and their journalists have the freedom and property right to have journalistic credentials and access to the White House grounds in that capacity to report on the President and his administration,” the complaint states. “That access has long extended to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other locations the White House opens to reporters for pool coverage.”
“This ban, and Defendants’ continued exclusion of Plaintiffs from certain areas of White House coverage, deprives Plaintiffs of those benefits without meeting the minimum due process requirements of advance notice and opportunity for hearing based on clear standards,” the complaint states.
The complaint also said the White House was interfering with CNN’s ability to carry out its mission as one of five television networks “to pay for and equip the major television network pool on which the American people (and the White House itself) rely for real-time television coverage of the President in the Oval Office, on board Air Force One, and at many other presidential events where size or other constraints make it impossible to accommodate the entire press corps.”
When President Trump announced the ban, he said he was “tired” of the fiction and lies being written about him, his administration and the United States.
On September 19, the day after he announced the ban, reporters from three media outlets were denied access to the White House grounds and had their passes confiscated when they showed up.
Two days later, the news organizations first sued President Trump, White House communications director Stephen Chan, chief of staff Susan Wiles, and Secret Service Director Sean Curran, seeking to restore access.
District Court Judge Tim Kelly on September 23 issued a temporary restraining order ordering the White House to restore access to the outlet for at least 14 days.
Kelly, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Trump in 2017, said in the executive order that the ban appears to be in direct violation of two federal appeals court rulings that require prior notice and an opportunity to be interviewed for journalists whose White House press passes are subject to revocation.
The White House allowed journalists from banned outlets the next day.
On October 13, Mr. Kelly issued a preliminary injunction, indefinitely barring the White House from reimposing the ban while the outlet’s lawsuit continues in court.
In issuing the injunction, Kelly again cited the appellate court’s ruling, but also said the news organization would likely prevail on two First Amendment claims in a civil lawsuit alleging retaliation and viewpoint discrimination.
Disclosure: CNBC and MS NOW are divisions of Versant Media.
