It is the latest fracas between the media and the Trump administration.
By Catholics for Catholics
In the latest squabble between the media and the presidency, CNN, MS Now and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump’s administration after they were excluded from covering the White House over the weekend.
The three media outlets said the discriminate prohibition was “a blatant violation” of the First Amendment, according to a story by Newsmax.
The Trump’s administration voiced the ban against the media outlets on Friday and the White House’s efforts during the weekend showed a clear intensification of the President’s enduring struggles — in the courts and through administrative action — to limit news coverage he finds abhorrent or, in his words, “fake news.”
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the outlets said in a joint statement posted early Monday on X.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
In the joint complaint, the outlets said: “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.”
The outlets say they’re being banned from doing their jobs at the White House “for one simple reason: (Trump) dislikes the content of the coverage of him and his administration.”
"I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here," President Trump echoed his media outlet ban aimed at CNN, MS NOW and Politico that he issued Friday while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 18, 2026
The president barred the outlets from reporting at the White House… pic.twitter.com/nkFmUG8Dot
“President Trump has said in no uncertain terms that he would prefer only to be covered by news organizations and reporters who praise his administration,” says the complaint, filed in the name of the three outlets and three correspondents who were denied access Saturday.
It went on: “But the Constitution does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”
They were also the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States, where the government is constitutionally forbidden from restricting the press.
The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, “does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”
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