Trump delivered a speech at the White House, but you can't hear what he said

Standing on the White House lawn, US President Donald Trump showed off his new granite helicopter pad.

He used oversized gold scissors to cut a red, white and blue ribbon, and exchanged handshakes with the construction crew.

He had some words to mark the occasion on Monday, local time, but without a microphone in front of him, they did not reach many ears.

Usually, this sort of moment would be captured by the White House press pool.

But days after the president escalated his attacks on American media outlets, the pool reporters were not there.

"Maybe … this is one example of it backfiring just a little bit," a Newsmax presenter watching a silent feed remarked.

Here is how the president got here.

First, catch me up

The president announced on Friday that he had banned three prominent media outlets from the White House, blocking them from serving as White House pool representatives. 

Cable networks CNN and MS Now, and online publisher Politico, were barred "effective immediately" because of their "constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS", Mr Trump told his Truth Social followers.

He threatened further bans of other media outlets would follow.

Reporters from all three were denied entrance to the White House grounds the next day.

What is the White House pool?

A press pool is when a group of news organisations combine their resources to gather and distribute notes, news, photos and video.

They are created when space at, or access to, an event is limited.

For example, Australian media organisations are currently part of a press pool to share footage of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his US trip for the United Nations General Assembly.

The White House press pool covers the US president every day.

The television arm is made up of five networks: The American ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN and Fox News.

They use a rotating schedule to cover the president's movements and share the footage with each other and affiliates.

What does the ban look like in practice?

There has been a wider knock-on effect.

The remainder of the White House television pool announced it would suspend coverage of Mr Trump.

"Effective today, there would be no network pool coverage of the president's events," the television pool wrote in an email to subscribers.

CNN was scheduled to be the television network pool representative for Mr Trump's trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday, local time, but was unable to fulfil the commitment due to the ban.

But the pool said it would not send a back-up crew.

It meant there was little to no live video footage of the president's trip captured by independent news media.

The suspension also led to Mr Trump's unveiling of the new White House helipad going largely unheard.

How did Trump respond?

On Truth Social, Mr Trump insisted the ban was not an attack on press freedom.

"It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America," he wrote.

Speaking to reporters in New York after a meeting with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, he tried to shrug off the lack of network television coverage of his movements.

"It's interesting because they said they were gonna boycott me. But they never boycott me," he said. 

"I think that these outlets have an obligation to be fair."

Is Trump really allowed to deny journalists access?

That is something the courts will need to decide.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico are suing the administration over the ban, which they say denies their First Amendment rights to free speech.

The US Constitution guarantees a free press, stating the government "shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press".

But the Trump administration insists the First Amendment protects the right to publish but does not entitle the media to a White House pass, briefing room seat or place in the press pool.

Last year, the Trump administration up-ended a decades-long tradition of the White House Correspondents Association, which operates independently of the government, selecting journalists for the pool.

Instead, the White House now picks and chooses which members of the media make up the pool.