Trump’s Reckless ‘Free Press’ Ban Is Blowing Up in His Face
The president had to give remarks without audio on Monday, so his administration set up a state-run media channel
Donald Trump announced on Friday that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. He broke the news on Truth Social before fielding questions in the Oval Office later in the day, ranting about the “fake news” and even describing the ban as “the ban on the free press.”
The ban didn’t seem to be tied to any particular story from any of the three outlets, and it reportedly took many senior staff by surprise. CNN, MS NOW, and Politico released separate statements decrying what they called an assault on their First Amendment rights. Trump wasn’t able to offer specifics on the ban while speaking to the press on Friday, but the outlets were indeed denied access to the White House on Saturday morning. CNN released another statement, emphasizing that it will continue to “report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrain physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism.”
The ban blew up in the Trump administration’s face on Monday, when ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News agreed to suspend their White House pool coverage in solidarity with the banned outlets, releasing a joint statement emphasizing that “no administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
It turns out this is a pretty big deal, as Trump learned during his ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new helipad he had built in front of the White House … which Newsmax had to broadcast without audio because of the boycott. “There’s no microphone because the pool cameras aren’t there,” the host said in what played like a scene from Veep. “So maybe this is one example of [the ban] backfiring just a little bit.”
LMFAO — Trump is holding an event at the White House right now but there's no audio because the press pool isn't there. The Newsmax host notes that this is an example of Trump's attacks on the press "backfiring just a little bit" pic.twitter.com/dAy1dvDvFL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 21, 2026
The Trump administration countered by announcing the creation of state-run media, a YouTube channel called Trump TV. The administration teased the channel with a snazzy trailer featuring snippets of popular TV shows set to “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The channel went live Sunday night, promising to air 24/7 footage of the president. So far, the channel has been running old Trump events and speeches on a loop. As of this writing, it’s playing Trump’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in February.
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— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 21, 2026IT'S LIVE. 📺🦅
TRUMP TV IS STREAMING NOW. 24/7, updated in real time, with top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place.
Not every big moment has made it on your tv, now it can.
Trump TV may be live, but it’s hard to believe Trump will be able to suffer a media blackout of his White House events for much longer. The administration may soon have to let the outlets back into the White House, anyway, as CNN, MS NOW, and Politico have said they are going to sue over the ban. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said in a joint statement on Monday. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
Trump tried to ban the Associated Press from the White House last year after the outlet refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The AP sued and were reinstated, with a federal judge ruling that the White House can’t ban outlets because it doesn’t like their coverage.
Trump raged on Monday after the three outlets sued for reinstatement themselves, writing on Truth Social that the administration would appeal and that the White House should be “treated with Decorum, Respect, and Dignity, not defiled by Third Rate Clowns, who purposefully distort, twist, and degrade with everything they write or publish. Virtually every story about me, or anything having to do with me, is negative, wrong and, in many cases, DANGEROUS for our Country!”
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Trump was still upset on Tuesday. “I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” he said before delivering a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “You shouldn’t be here. You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
Trump cannot, of course, ban CNN from covering the United Nations, nor did CNN say it would stop covering the president or his administration.
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