Trump says he’s banning media outlets, including POLITICO, from White House

President Donald Trump said he would ban reporters from three publications, including POLITICO, from the White House in a post on Truth Social on Friday.

“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow,” he wrote.

In addition to POLITICO, Trump said he would block CNN and MS NOW from sending journalists into the White House.

It’s the latest escalation in the president’s long-running feud with the media.

The president said he was blocking the outlets from accessing the White House “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”

In a statement, POLITICO said the outlet “will continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones. We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.”

“CNN stands fully behind our White House team and their fair and accurate reporting. We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government,” CNN said in a statement. “Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right.”

MS NOW declined to comment.

Trump did not elaborate on why he was seeking to ban the media outlets, beyond telling reporters in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon it was “fake news” and that it was “cumulative stories” that led to his decision.

Trump has sought in the past to limit reporters from reaching the White House. The White House blocked reporters from The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One after the outlet refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in its style guide last February. The AP sued the White House to restore its access in the days following.

The White House last October also barred reporters from accessing a West Wing office used by communications staff, and early in Trump’s second term took control over the management of the White House pool rotation, which had long been handled by the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Jacqui Heinrich, the WHCA president and a Fox News correspondent, criticized Trump’s move in a statement.

“The president said it plainly in the Oval Office, describing his own planned action as a ‘ban on the free press.’ The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference,” she said. “That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.”

In a Friday editorial marking the publication’s 175th birthday, New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger blasted Trump as the most “hostile” president to the press in modern history. Last September, Trump sued the Times for $15 billion, but the lawsuit was quickly quashed by a judge. Trump refiled that suit in August.

Trump attacked POLITICO by saying that “the government under Biden gave them like $8 million to keep them afloat,” reviving a false claim that the White House used to go after the company in 2025 when Trump’s administration canceled subscriptions to the POLITICO Pro policy news service.

“The claims that POLITICO received government subsidies are false and have been thoroughly debunked,” POLITICO said in its statement.

Ashley Ahn and Elleiana Green contributed to this report.