Trump Tangles With Press Pool After Banning CNN, MS NOW, Politico From White House

Barely an hour after announcing an unprecedented ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, President Trump tangled with the press pool Friday afternoon – which coincidentally did not include any of those three outlets – about the move during a Q&A following a health care event.

After a lead-off question from our friend Daniel Baldwin of One America News about prescription drug pricing, Briefing Room Karen – aka NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell – sought to lecture Trump: “Every president takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, which includes the First Amendment. How do you justify this ban?”

Trump clapped back he does take such an oath, and upholds the Constitution “much more so than you” before saying the ban was made “[b]ecause they’re fake news” and he “get[s] so tired of reading and seeing fake news.”

“When you look at CNN, it’s just fake. That’s why their ratings are no good. When you look at MS NOW, which used to be MSNBC, which some people call MSDNC — Democratic National Committee, it’s fake news. It’s fake news,” he added.

O’Donnell tried to interject, but Trump wasn’t having any of her condescension (click “expand”):

O’DONNELL: So, the First Amendment protects —

TRUMP: And — and excuse me, excuse me. And when you look at it — P — as Politico, I mean, they got a government — the government under Biden gave ‘em like $8 million to keep them afloat, and the stories they wrote are fake. So, there’s a lot of news, and there may be others to join them, and maybe they can get better and would like to have them in. But our country has to have honest news. You know, you don’t have a country unless you have, as I say, borders, good voting, straightening them out. Borders are unbelievable. Nobody’s come into our country in the last 17 months illegally. But you need borders, and you need fair and free voting. And you know what you need? You need a free press. You need a fair press and an honest press.”

[O’DONNELL SHOUTING]

TRUMP: And CNN, and you know it, and everybody knows it. You’re intelligent. I’ve known you a long time. You know how fake their reporting is. It’s one-sided. It’s never good. I’ve done many, many look at this story today about favored nations on drugs. We lowered the drug costs by 50, 60, 70 percent.

O’DONNELL: It’s being covered right now.

TRUMP: They won’t even put it — if they put it on it, it’ll be — they will find a reason why that’s a negative, okay?

AFP’s Danny Kemp was next, except he actually had a real question. Specifically, he wanted to know “why” Trump was “doing this ban now” and if there was “a particular reason” or “particular story” from those outlets he objected to.

Trump said there was “no reason,” adding it was more so “cumulative stories over the last two years” that he “[got] sick of it,” and made worse by seeing stories attacking the administration’s agenda, no matter how much cabinet secretaries tried to explain subject matter to reporters.

Following a lengthy answer about the country’s economic data and why he felt the U.S. had to go to war with Iran, Trump took a diversion with questions from two conservative reporters, including two from Salem’s Willie Nelson (one about the Clancy trial, and the other on Hasan Piker):

The next ban-related question came from The Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey, who also tried to scold Trump: “[F]reedom of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment. Are you trying to — are you trying to intimidate the press from doing its job?”

Trump dished it back to her: “Oh, thank you for telling — thank you for telling me.”

Trump was a man of few words as he ripped Lucey: “No, no, no, no. I dislike dishonest press like you. I think you’re terrible, but I dislike dishonest — I like to see honest press.”

Washington Examiner’s Naomi Lim took Kemp’s tactic, referencing the 2018 court battle with Fake News Jim Acsota: “In the first administration, you tried a similar ban against CNN, and it didn’t survive a court challenge. What makes you think that this move will?”

As such, Trump gave a much longer answer, starting with his hope it’ll be successful, but “we’ll see” and, in Acosta’s case, “we didn’t have to take it too far because the reporter that you’re talking about discredited himself” by becoming “a joke.”

He then asserted the President “has a right to keep them away, if they’re going to write false stories all the time” and, as a whole, “I don’t get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox” (click “expand”):

I think it’s good. I think it’s good to point it out, whether it survives or doesn’t. I mean, I don’t think a court should allow — depends on the judge you get, to be honest with you. I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day. I think that somebody has a right to keep them away, if they’re going to write false stories all the time. I don’t think I’ve had — look, I won the presidency. I won all seven swing states. I won the popular vote. I won 87 percent of the counties. That’s why the maps are all red when you look, except for two little blue lines on each side on each coast. I won a landslide and I get no — I get — I don’t get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox. Fox is the worst. I think Fox has, frankly, the worst polls in the whole business. I think they should have gotten rid of their pollsters years ago. They’ve been calling me wrong for ten years, but my polls have been very good. You know, I get good polls, I get good everything. But what I do ask is just a semblance of truth. CNN is fake news. MS NOW is fake news. They’re fake news. They know it. They’re put there for a reason. Politico was bailed out by our government from going out of business. I don’t know if it was $8 million or something, but they were given this massive subsidy prior to my coming into office, because they write only negative, you know, only negative. Now, we’ve done something that nobody’s ever done politically. I’ve had a political career like nobody else in history. On occasion, it would be nice if we had some fairness. It’s all fake news.

The Associated Press’s Seung Min Kim – whose news organization went through its own legal battle with the President in early 2025 – asked Trump to explain, “How is this action legal and constitutional, considering the First Amendment?” She also invited former White House Press Secretary and current Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) to weigh in.

The President alluded to negative press coverage in the 2024 election, specifically the work of the Media Research Center when it came to the broadcast networks (click “expand”):

Well, I’ll just answer it again. I’ll say it the same way. I don’t think somebody should be allowed to come in and write fake stories. They’re fake news, and that’s why they have no credibility. That’s why. So, I had 96 percent negative coverage during the election. And I won because they have no credibility. I got 96 — I guess NBC was 93 percent negative. So, 93 — with all of the victories I’ve had, everything’s been a victory. It’s all been a victory. And I won the election like nobody’s ever seen anything like it. I get no — they never write a good story. They won’t write a story about. I just reduced drug prices by 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 percent. I won’t get a good story out of these people. From some of them, I will. I’ll get one from him. I’ll get one from him. I’ll get a few of them. But it’s sick. I mean, there’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories. Now, if they want to write them, that’s fine, but I don’t have to — let them into my — into the people’s house.

Sanders herself weighed in by telling reporters that “it’s hard for you to argue against a free press when you’re literally standing in the Oval Office,” and that Trump had been more accessible than any in history.

Trump chimed into point out the press would ask Biden softballs about ice cream. Notice in the clip how O’Donnell was offended by such a declaration:

Kemp had a second chance, and made perhaps the most salient point, which is Chinese Communist dictator Xi Jinping is “coming here next week” and “China is one of the most repressive countries for journalists in the world,” so “what signal is it sending that” he’s banning three major outlets just days before the summit.

Trump took issue with that, saying he doesn’t “know about that” when it comes to China’s record because “we’re repressive also” and “we spy on them, too”:

Skipping ahead to later, Lucey wanted to know what Trump meant when he said earlier that “others” are “to come,” and also “how is this ban going to work.”

Trump suggested The New York Times and Washington Post are next, and both won’t be “display[ed] anymore in the White House,” which one could infer he meant have delivered each morning.

Moving ahead again (because, miraculously, reporters asked Trump about other issues considering they’re unlike to see him at Camp David), the AP’s Kim had the last question: “On the ban, what does that mean in practice? Are you taking away their badges? Are you banning them from the pool? What does this actually mean?”

Trump said “I don’t want them in my office” or “here” at the White House. However, he said it could “go as far as you can, and, if they could straighten themselves out…I’d love it.”

He closed with a rant about arguably successful lawsuits against ABC (George Stephanopoulos) and CBS (60 Minutes) and one currently against the BBC (documentary about January 6)

ABC fake news gave me $16 million that was agreed to — $16 million that I won from ABC News, because George Slopadopoulos wrote incorrect stuff. CBS gave me $38 million because they broadcast Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes, and the question bore no relationship to what she said. You saw that I’m right now suing BBC because they have the granddaddy of them all. They have where I said, walk freely and patriotically — having to do with January 6 — and they put horrible fighting words into my mouth with my — with me actually saying it. I said, I never said that, and when we checked, it was — BBC actually changed my language, and they put words in my mouth. That’s the furthest I’ve seen. So, that — we have numerous lawsuits. We’ll be suing these people too. But the ban is because they are fake news. They cannot write the truth, and Politico is very bad. And Politico, frankly, I think what they did was illegal. They accepted a the world’s largest subscription. They got $8 million or something like that for a subscription to their stupid, you know, lightweight paper. But I will say Politico and MS NOW, which nobody ever heard of, and CNN, which is doing very poorly — the reason they do so poorly is because they have no credibility. And if they had credibility, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. So, we are banning them. Yes, we are, and there may be others to follow.

To see the relevant transcript from September 18, click here.