The president has a long-standing pattern of retaliation against reporters who offend him.
“The White House isn’t initiating an assault on the Free Press, a principle I hold dear,” President Donald Trump stated on Monday. “What is happening is an assault on the FAKE NEWS.”
Trump aimed to respond to the backlash provoked by his last Friday declaration that he would “ban” CNN, MS NOW (the outlet formerly known as MSNBC), and Politico “from the White House,” with “other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.” Yet his defense underscored the same longstanding contempt for the freedom he says he upholds.
If you don’t cover me the way I want, Trump says, I won’t permit you to cover me at all. “It’s hard to imagine a more blatant violation of the First Amendment,” said Seth Stern, chief advocacy officer at the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The targeted outlets responded by filing a First Amendment lawsuit that was assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee who had appeared in an earlier clash between the president and the press. During his first term, Trump pulled CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s White House press pass, later explaining that Acosta hadn’t treated him with the “respect” he deserved.
In response to CNN’s lawsuit, Kelly issued a temporary restraining order blocking Acosta’s removal on due process grounds. The White House retreated, avoiding a full airing of CNN’s First Amendment claims. After restoring Acosta’s pass, CNN agreed to drop the suit.
Soon after starting his second term, Trump barred Associated Press journalists from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and White House briefings because the organization had refused to begin calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf America, the name the president prefers. Two months later, another Trump-appointed judge, Trevor N. McFadden, issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the AP ban, finding that the organization was likely to succeed on claims that the White House retaliated unlawfully and engaged in viewpoint discrimination.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit partially stayed McFadden’s order in June 2025, drawing a distinction between “limited spaces” such as the Oval Office and “events open to all credentialed White House journalists,” such as East Room press conferences. The appeals court heard oral argument in the case last November but has not issued a decision yet.
The bans Trump announced last week extend at least to the Associated Press. And his remarks made it clear that he would like to go even further.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to continuously write or report FICTION and LIES while covering the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I don’t think a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” he told reporters. “There’s something wrong with a country that lets people publish deliberately negative stories.”
That stance aligns with Trump’s repeated threats to revoke broadcast licenses in response to coverage he deems unfair. Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has taken steps toward fulfilling those threats, based on the premise that broadcasters owe the president a degree of compliance.
Trump’s ban of disfavored outlets broadens that assault to other media. Unlike broadcasters, cable channels and newspapers are not bound by the “public interest” obligation that Trump and Carr conflate with a duty to avoid offending the president.
Trump has also sought to intimidate outlets with lawsuits that absurdly claim that disliked journalism constitutes defamation or consumer fraud. According to Trump, even questioning the effectiveness of his National Guard deployment in the District of Columbia could expose you to a $5 billion defamation lawsuit.
Trump said he was “proud to announce” the sanctions against CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. He should instead be embarrassed to indulge in such vendettas, which reveal not only his thin-skinned pettiness but also his disregard for the First Amendment rights he pretends to defend.
© Copyright 2026 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
