President Donald Trump said on Friday he was banning three major news outlets – CNN, MS NOW and Politico – from the White House, in his latest move to crack down on the independent press.
He wrote that he was banning the outlets for allegedly “reporting FAKE NEWS” in a move that is likely to be challenged as conflicting with the US Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees of free speech and a free press.
“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,” he wrote. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
CNN, MS NOW, Politico and the National Press Club did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
He has repeatedly urged broadcasters to drop comedy or news programs he dislikes or which have joked about or criticised him or his administration. He has also called on the Federal Communications Commission to strip stations of licenses after criticizing news and other programming.
Trump’s early legal wins against broadcasters have given way to defeats and retreats as courts and newsrooms act to protect press freedom.
At the end of July, the Justice Department withdrew subpoenas issued to New York Times (NYT) journalists who had written articles about the security of Trump’s presidential aircraft.
The president has also filed defamation suits targeting The New York Times over articles and a book about the origins of his fortune, and the Wall Street Journal over an article about a salacious letter he sent to Jeffrey Epstein.
Last year, he banned the Associated Press from the usual pool of reporters that cover his movements because the news agency did not adopt Trump’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump has instructed executive branch employees to refer to as the Gulf of America.
Earlier cases involving ABC and CBS ended in December 2024 and July 2025 with the broadcasters promising to pay $15 million and $16 million, respectively.
Trump sued ABC for defamation over statements about a civil judgment against Trump in a sexual assault case.
He took CBS to court for allegedly misleading viewers by airing different clips of the same answer from an interview with 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
