WASHINGTON, September 20 — White House press credentials for three news organizations were deactivated and their reporters turned away at the gates on Saturday, one day after President Donald Trump said he was barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico over coverage he called “fake news.” The move escalated a campaign the administration has waged in the courts and through regulatory action against outlets the president finds objectionable, and it immediately became the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States.
Trump had announced the ban on Friday, saying he would exclude all three outlets because of coverage he disliked. By Saturday, the mechanics of that decision were on display at the White House complex.
Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW, both White House reporters, went live to report they had been turned away and that their press badges had been deactivated on arrival. Gardner described walking through two gates successfully before reaching the point where her badge needed to be scanned. An officer there told her the credential was disabled and asked her to hand it over, saying the decision “was above him,” she reported.
An MS NOW producer was able to get in, but a photographer’s badge was also disabled, according to Gardner. Klein said her badge had likewise been deactivated and confiscated; she was handed back the clear plastic case.
She said she was referred to the White House press office for further information. Politico said soon afterward that its White House reporter, Cheyenne Haslett, was also denied entry and had her badge confiscated.
Outlets signal legal action
All three organizations hinted at court challenges. “We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights,” Politico Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger said in a statement to the Politico newsroom.
CNN said the network “will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account.” MS NOW said it “intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.” Network correspondents are usually present on weekends when the president is in Washington or at nearby Camp David. Trump is at the presidential retreat in Maryland this weekend.
A standard that could travel
Jacqui Heinrich, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, called on the administration to immediately restore the three outlets’ access. “The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future,” Heinrich said.
“The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably.” Amy Kristin Sanders, a professor at Penn State University and an expert in media law, said it has “become pretty clear that this administration is not interested in playing by traditional First Amendment rules and norms.” She added that the second Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on press freedom and delegitimize independent journalism “far exceed those of any other modern American president,” and that it is “not an exaggeration to say his hostile actions toward news organizations and individual reporters have a chilling effect on freedom of expression around the world.”
CNN media analyst Brian Stelter called the move “a direct threat to press freedom in the United States.” “It’s so much bigger than CNN,” Stelter said.
In his second term, Trump and his administration have upped the ante and punished certain media outlets, both in the courtroom and through regulatory action. The president has also lashed out at individual reporters in person and over social media, sometimes in strikingly personal terms — insulting them in briefings, or in his recent speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. What this signals, strategically, is a shift from rhetorical pressure to physical exclusion from the building where the president’s movements are covered.
The calculus for the three outlets now runs through the courts, where they have signaled they intend to press First Amendment claims. The next test is whether the administration restores access under legal pressure — or whether the badge deactivations become the standing rule for reporters whose coverage the White House dislikes.
