White House excludes CNN from Air Force One press pool

The White House excluded CNN from Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s Saturday trip to Tennessee, assigning its place to a conservative outlet a day after a court order restored the network’s access to White House grounds.

CNN had been scheduled to travel with Trump to Knoxville, where he was set to attend a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas. White House guidance instead listed Real America’s Voice News for the flight. That outlet is not part of the U.S. network video pool, whose members have long filled the seat assigned to CNN.

The decision follows Trump’s ban last week on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. The three outlets sued, arguing that the ban violated their First Amendment rights. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” they said in a statement.

Trump cited coverage he objected to when he announced the ban. “Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES,” he wrote on Truth Social, according to The Guardian.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down the ban in an overnight ruling early Thursday. His order addressed the outlets’ passes to enter White House grounds, but did not directly address their press pool duties or travel aboard Air Force One.

Kelly said the government had not supported its argument that the restrictions were needed to protect national security. “Defendants offer no declarations or other support – classified or unclassified – explaining how any of the reporting they identified in their letters to Plaintiffs damaged the national security,” he wrote, according to Al Jazeera.

The outlets’ attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr., said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that the plaintiffs believe the ruling also covers pool access. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on CNN’s exclusion from the flight.

The White House video pool consists of five major U.S. broadcast outlets that take turns recording and sharing footage with other news organizations. After CNN was barred from White House grounds, the other four providers — Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC — declined to participate in solidarity. In a joint statement Monday, the television pool said: “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

Pool video resumed Friday. CNN carried footage of Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping touring the National Archives with their wives, Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan. The Guardian reported that CNN staff and an MS NOW reporter had been blocked from covering a state dinner for Xi on Thursday, despite the court order restoring access to White House grounds.

The Air Force One assignment leaves a separate question from the one Kelly explicitly addressed: whether the ruling restoring the outlets’ White House passes also governs their place in the press pool.