White House Tightens Media Access, Blocks CNN From Air Force One For Trump’s Tennessee Trip

• The White House has removed CNN from the press pool scheduled to accompany President Donald Trump to Knoxville, Tennessee, replacing it with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice News.

• The move came shortly after a federal judge temporarily restored CNN’s access to the White House, alongside MS NOW and Politico, after Trump’s administration barred the outlets over their coverage of him.

• ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC had jointly suspended White House pool coverage after CNN was excluded, arguing that news organisations should not be punished over editorial disagreements.

• CNN’s exclusion from Air Force One has renewed questions over the administration’s power to restrict presidential media access after a court ordered the restoration of the network’s White House access.

September 26, () – The White House has excluded CNN from the press pool travelling with President Donald Trump to Tennessee on Saturday, replacing the network with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice News.

Trump is scheduled to travel to Knoxville to attend a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas.

CNN had been scheduled as the television network in the rotating press pool accompanying Trump aboard Air Force One and providing footage to other media organisations.

The White House’s latest guidance, however, listed Real America’s Voice News for the trip, leaving CNN off the presidential flight.

The decision came days after US District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily ordered the White House to restore access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which had been barred from the White House after Trump accused them of providing negative coverage of his administration.

The judge’s ruling addressed the outlets’ White House credentials but did not specifically address access to Air Force One or presidential travel pools.

Lawyers for the media organisations have argued that the ruling should also protect pool access.

The dispute briefly eased Friday when the White House television video pool resumed operations, allowing CNN to broadcast live footage of Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting the National Archives.

Background

The latest move is part of a broader confrontation between Trump and US media organisations during his second term.

Earlier, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC jointly suspended participation in the White House video pool after CNN was excluded, with the broadcasters warning that no administration should restrict a news organisation because of disagreement with its reporting.

The presidential press pool is a longstanding arrangement under which journalists rotate access to the president when space is limited, sharing footage and reports with the wider press corps.

Trump has also previously restricted Associated Press journalists over the organisation’s refusal to adopt his preferred name, “Gulf of America”, for the Gulf of Mexico. That dispute remains on appeal.