CNN, Politico and MS NOW sue Trump administration over White House ban

CNN, Politico and MS NOW filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against the Trump administration, arguing that President Donald Trump’s ban on the three outlets from White House grounds violates the First Amendment and due process protections.

Trump announced the ban in a Truth Social post on Friday, September 18, writing that the outlets should not be able to “constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” about him. He said their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” left him no choice. In a follow-up post Monday, he called ongoing coverage “an assault” on him that amounted to “a threat to our National Security.”

Reporters from MS NOW said they were denied access to White House grounds the Saturday morning after the announcement, and journalists from the three outlets had their press passes confiscated.

The 27-page complaint names Trump, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, Secret Service Director Sean Curran and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as defendants. It calls the ban “a direct assault on the First Amendment” and says it violated the outlets’ “due process rights and First Amendment protections for newsgathering and speech.”

The named plaintiffs include the three outlets along with three of their White House correspondents: Akayla Gardner of MS NOW, Betsy Klein of CNN and Cheyenne Haslett of Politico.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly set a hearing for Wednesday and ordered the administration to respond by Tuesday, according to NBC News. The outlets are seeking a temporary injunction restoring their access while the case proceeds.

Asked for comment, the White House press office pointed reporters back to Trump’s Truth Social posts rather than issuing a separate statement. In one of those posts, Trump argued that the First Amendment “protects their right to publish; it does not entitle them to a hard pass, briefing room seat, or place in the press pool.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association called the ban unconstitutional.

Members of the White House television press pool, which rotates coverage of the president’s movements among networks, declined to cover Trump’s departure ahead of a trip to New York and other events this week, citing the action against CNN.

Ted Boutrous, the First Amendment attorney who represented CNN when it sued the first Trump administration over the 2018 suspension of correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass, is representing the three outlets in the new case. CNN won that earlier case, with a federal judge ordering the White House to restore Acosta’s credentials.

The new complaint follows a similar case brought by the Associated Press, which sued after the administration restricted its access over the wire service’s refusal to exclusively call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled in April 2025 that the restriction violated the First Amendment, writing that “under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists, be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere, it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints.” He ordered the AP restored to the same access as other pool reporters.

CNN, Politico and MS NOW are making a similar argument, contending that barring them in retaliation for their coverage amounts to viewpoint discrimination that punishes protected newsgathering.

Trump said in his initial post that other, unspecified outlets could face similar bans in the future.