Former President Donald Trump escalated his contentious relationship with the media this week by barring Politico from boarding Air Force One during a campaign trip to Nebraska on Monday. Politico had been assigned “pool coverage” duties, providing reporting access for the broader press corps. In response, several other media outlets showed solidarity by declining to fill Politico’s spot on the plane.
The White House defended the decision, asserting that Trump continues to offer an “unprecedented level of access” to the press, despite the exclusion of Politico. Trump voiced his ongoing criticism of mainstream media on his social media platform Truth Social, targeting outlets including The New York Times for what he called “dishonesty and disservice” to the country.
This incident follows a broader dispute that began in September when Trump moved to revoke the White House press credentials of Politico, CNN, and MSNBC. Those organizations responded by filing a lawsuit, arguing that their exclusion infringed on constitutional rights, particularly protections under the First Amendment. A temporary restraining order issued by Trump-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly mandated that the Trump administration reinstate the press badges.
Since that ruling, CNN has repeatedly been denied access to Air Force One on the grounds that while White House access is legally required, access to the president’s plane is not. Legal representatives for the media organizations dispute this distinction. Ted Boutrous, the First Amendment attorney representing the outlets, emphasized that the denial of access causes significant harm to their clients, the public’s right to information, and constitutional press freedoms.
The legal battle is ongoing. Judge Kelly is scheduled to hold a hearing this week regarding the media outlets’ request for a preliminary injunction, which would maintain their access pending the outcome of a potential trial.
Trump’s adversarial approach to the press is long-standing, encompassing not only news organizations like Politico, CNN, and MSNBC but also prominent outlets including the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and media conglomerate Disney, which owns ABC News. Several of these entities are currently engaged in separate legal disputes with Trump.
The current controversy has prompted an unusual level of unity among news organizations that often compete with one another. Columbia Journalism Review described the collective response to the White House’s actions as “a striking and heartening show of solidarity” among members of the White House press corps. When Politico, CNN, and MSNBC were initially banned from White House grounds last month, other pool members opted not to replace them, signaling shared concern about the restrictions on press access.