The White House has launched a new television channel on YouTube, branded as "Trump TV," following a ban on two major broadcasters that prompted a boycott from leading U.S. networks. The channel aims to showcase key moments from the Trump administration but has so far attracted limited viewership.
The launch came after the White House barred CNN from covering a presidential trip to New York on Monday, breaking with a long-standing arrangement in which media outlets take turns providing pool coverage. Other major networks including Fox News, NBC, ABC, and CBS declined to substitute for CNN, effectively boycotting White House events in protest.
Trump TV debuted with a rebroadcast of a July speech at Mount Rushmore and featured a loop of clips from popular television shows. The channel streams content around the clock but reportedly lacks the capacity for live coverage. Viewer interaction was disabled, with comments turned off shortly after the channel went live. Within 15 minutes of its launch, the channel had approximately 8,000 live viewers on YouTube, a fraction of the White House’s broader YouTube audience, which currently totals about 3.2 million subscribers.
Critics have denounced the channel as a state-run outlet, suggesting it represents an authoritarian approach to controlling media access and messaging. Gavin Newsom, governor of California, described the move as “autocratic behavior,” asserting that the channel seeks to overshadow the administration’s perceived failures by limiting independent news coverage.
The White House has justified the media bans on grounds of national security. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz stated the decision was taken because some news organizations rely on anonymous sources to reveal sensitive information, including troop movements and classified deployment orders, potentially endangering security operations.
This latest crackdown on select media outlets follows previous actions by the Trump administration that critics say undermine press freedom. Last year, the White House temporarily removed the Associated Press from pool duty after the organization refused to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” by a name preferred by the president. The administration has also created a web section highlighting examples of alleged media bias and has frequently targeted major news organizations on social media.
Former President Trump has a well-documented history of tightly managing his public image, often using social media platforms such as Twitter, before being banned from major networks following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. He later launched his own platform, Truth Social, which currently reports about 6.3 million active users, significantly fewer than Twitter’s estimated 550 million users.
Trump’s relationship with the press has grown more contentious, particularly toward female journalists, with several public confrontations occurring during his second term. During a recent appearance at the United Nations, Trump criticized CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins for covering his speech, saying she “shouldn’t be here.”
The introduction of Trump TV marks a further development in the administration’s strategy to communicate directly with supporters while limiting access for independent news organizations, raising concerns about media plurality and government transparency as the 2026 election cycle unfolds.