Trump Says He’s Banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico From the White House, and Their Reporters Were Turned Away

President Donald Trump said on Friday, Sept. 18, that he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. On Saturday, reporters from all three outlets were turned away and their credentials were disabled or confiscated, according to NBC News and Al Jazeera. The outlets and press-freedom groups say the move is unconstitutional. A White House official says the outlets have spread falsehoods about Trump.

Trump accused the three outlets of what he called "constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS," according to NBC News. He also warned that "other outlets" could face similar action, without naming them. NBC reported that Trump claimed Politico received an "$8 Million Dollar subscription" from the government, which Politico called "false and thoroughly debunked."

According to NBC News, three journalists arrived at the White House on Saturday morning and were denied entry. MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner said her badge was disabled and that an officer told her the decision was "above him." CNN’s Betsy Klein had her credential confiscated at a security kiosk, and Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett had her pass confiscated by the Secret Service. NBC reported that the outlets’ workspaces in the building sat empty through the day.

A senior White House official defended the ban to NBC News, saying: "for far too long Fake News outlets have been peddling lies about him and his Administration."

CNN called the ban "an illegal assault" on its constitutional right to do journalism. MS NOW said it would "take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights," and Politico’s editor-in-chief said the outlet would "vigorously defend our First Amendment rights." The White House Correspondents’ Association said the ban violates the First Amendment, and noted that Trump himself had described his planned action as a "ban on the free press," according to Al Jazeera.

Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told NBC News the move is "pretty clearly unconstitutional" and predicted that a legal challenge would succeed. Those are the views of critics; a court has not ruled on this ban.

Al Jazeera pointed to a 1977 federal appeals court ruling, Sherrill v. Knight, which held that once the White House sets up press facilities for credentialed journalists, access cannot be denied arbitrarily. Separately, the Associated Press sued the administration in 2025 after it was barred from the Oval Office and some other events in a dispute over the name of the Gulf of Mexico, and NBC reported that case is still ongoing.

In the coverage IF Daily reviewed, no lawsuit over this ban had been reported as of Sunday, and the White House had not said which other outlets, if any, could be next. IF Daily will update this story as the outlets, the White House or the courts respond.