The TOI correspondent from Washington: MAGA boss Donald Trump has the sort of relationship with the US media that therapists may describe as “complicated”: he can’t live with them, can’t live without them, can’t stop talking about them, and gets mad whenever they say something unflattering.On Friday, he tried the presidential equivalent of blocking their number, announcing a ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House after accusing them of peddling “FAKE NEWS” and failing to give him the sort of coverage he believes he deserves. Other outlets, he warned, could soon join the White House blacklist.It was, in classic Trump fashion, a declaration made first on Truth Social and explained later in a ramble at the White House. “You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news,” he told reporters, complaining that the three organizations “purposely write negative news,” and the decision was “cumulative” rather than prompted by one particular story.Trump and the White House press corps have been here before. In 2018, the White House revoked then CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s hard pass after a contentious exchange with Trump during a news conference. CNN sued, and a federal judge ordered Acosta’s credentials temporarily restored, citing due-process concerns, and the White House ultimately restored them permanently. Acosta, now watching the sequel from outside the White House as a podcaster, offered an understated assessment of the latest ban: “I have a feeling this is not going to work out the way he thinks it will.”Trump, naturally, has a different outcome in mind. Asked why this time should be different, he essentially replied: we’ll see — and suggested that the result could depend on which judge hears the case, boasting, at one point, “I got more bans going than any human being.” He also indicated that the ban would apply only to the Oval Office to get around any legal and constitutional wrinkle.Legally, the White House is not obliged to turn the Oval Office into a public-access newsroom. The principle dates to Sherrill v. Knight, the 1977 D.C. Circuit case involving a journalist denied a White House press pass. The court held that while the government need not open the White House to the press, once it establishes press facilities for bona fide journalists, access cannot be denied arbitrarily or because of the journalist’s reporting. It also required notice, an opportunity to rebut the reasons for denial and a written decision.More recently though, the DC Circuit court has described the White House press area as a nonpublic forum, which gives the administration substantial discretion over access, but restrictions must still be reasonable and viewpoint-neutral. In other words: the president can control access; but he cannot necessarily control access by deciding who writes nice things about him — something Trump transparently desires.((White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich put it more formally: “The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.” Seth Stern at the Freedom of the Press Foundation put it more bluntly, saying it is “hard to imagine a dumber move.” ))There is a peculiar paradox at the heart of Trump’s relationship with journalists. He is arguably the most voluble and media-saturated president in U.S history, calling reporters into the Oval Office frequently, conducting impromptu interviews, staging gaggles aboard Air Force One, and posting constantly on social media. TV cameras are his oxygen.Yet he has repeatedly demonstrated that what he wants from the press is not necessarily independence but flattery. Negative coverage becomes “fake news,” tough questions – particularly from female reporters – become “nasty,” and critical media has been characterized as the “enemy of the people.”Last November, when Bloomberg correspondent Catherine Lucey asked Trump about Jeffrey Epstein’s emails aboard Air Force One, he pointed at her and said: “Quiet, piggy!” The White House defended his language as evidence of his supposedly frank relationship with reporters. He has also called female reporters “obnoxious,” made gratuitous personal comments about their mannerisms, and more recently singled out NYT’s Maggie Haberman, calling her “Maggot Hagerman”The timing of the ban appears linked to increasingly critical coverage of the President and his family from sections of the media, including a Bloomberg’s review of financial disclosures found that Trump or his money managers made nearly 28,700 securities transactions between his second inauguration and June 30, 2026, more than all members of Congress collectively. Then ProPublica reported that Russian businessman Umar Kremlev, who has ties to the Putin government, financed hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses surrounding Donald Trump Jr.‘s Bahamas wedding celebrations. The U.S media has also become increasingly skeptical of the claims from Trump and his administration on the Iran war, detailing fiascos that the Pentagon has not disclosed.
